Molecular profiling reveals diversity of stress signal transduction cascades in highly penetrant Alzheimer's disease human skin fibroblasts

Reaching Out, Helping Hands Helping Minds: A Hawai'ian Model for Aiding Friends Coping With Dementia

Reaching a certain age places one in a particular landscape in which dementia may be part of the scenery. This costly public health problem is personally devastating not only for dementia sufferers but for their surrounding interpersonal circle, which is not limited to immediate family. Indeed, friends often become the family you choose; their issues become, at some level, shared issues. In this setting the impulse of a life scientist to offer knowledgeable assistance to a friend fits naturally into a cornerstone of culture in present-day Hawai'i for mobilizing relevant aid from all corners. This model, called "forming a hui", comprises a network of not only formal professional relationships but potentially even more importantly, the informal ones: friendships, serendipitous contacts, someone who knows someone who knows someone, the essence of connectedness on behalf of friends coping with dementia. Storytelling as a means of communication holds a place of prominence in Hawai'ian culture; exchange of ideas, as well as reminiscence, is called "talk story." In this article, lives now built around coping with dementia are woven into a story fabric as into a Hawai'ian quilt.

Automatic gene prioritization in support of the inflammatory contribution to Alzheimer's disease

This research seeks to extend the process of novel therapeutic gene target discovery for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Gene-gene and gene-pathway annotation tools as well as human analysis are used to explore likely connections between potential gene targets and biochemical mechanisms of AD and associated genes. Rule-based annotation systems, such as GeneRanker, can be applied to the continuously growing volume of literature to extract relevant gene lists. The subsequent challenge is to abstract biological significance from associated genes to aid in discovery of novel therapeutic gene targets. Automatic annotation of genes deemed significant by data-driven assays and knowledge-driven analysis is limited. Therefore, human analysis is still crucial to exploring novel gene targets and new disease models. This research illustrates a method of analysis of an extracted gene list which lead to the discovery of KNG1 as a possible therapeutic target, suggests a connection between inflammation and AD pathogenesis.

Design and experimental approach to the construction of a human signal-molecule-profiling database

The human signal-molecule-profiling database (HSMPD) is designed as a prospective medical database for translational bioinformatics (TBI). To explore the feasibility of low-cost database construction, we studied the roadmap of HSMPD. A HSMPD-oriented tool, called “signal-molecule-profiling (SMP) chip” was developed for data acquisition, which can be employed in the routine blood tests in hospitals; the results will be stored in the HSMPD system automatically. HSMPD system can provide data services for the TBI community, which generates a stable income to support the data acquisition. The small-scale experimental test was performed in the hospital to verify SMP chips and the demo HSMPD software. One hundred and eighty nine complete SMP records were collected, and the demo HSMPD system was also evaluated in the survey study on patients and doctors. The function of SMP chip was verified, whereas the demo HSMPD software needed to be improved. The survey study showed that patients would only accept free tests of SMP chips when they originally needed blood examinations. The study indicated that the construction of HSMPD relies on the self-motivated cooperation of the TBI community and the traditional healthcare system. The proposed roadmap potentially provides an executable solution to build the HSMPD without high costs.

Vitiligo: a possible model of degenerative diseases

Vitiligo is characterized by the progressive disappearance of pigment cells from skin and hair follicle. Several in vitro and in vivo studies show evidence of an altered redox status, suggesting that loss of cellular redox equilibrium might be the pathogenic mechanism in vitiligo. However, despite the numerous data supporting a pathogenic role of oxidative stress, there is still no consensus explanation underlying the oxidative stress-driven disappear of melanocytes from the epidermis. In this study, in vitro characterization of melanocytes cultures from non-lesional vitiligo skin revealed at the cellular level aberrant function of signal transduction pathways common with neurodegenerative diseases including modification of lipid metabolism, hyperactivation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), constitutive p53-dependent stress signal transduction cascades, and enhanced sensibility to pro-apoptotic stimuli. Notably, these long-term effects of subcytotoxic oxidative stress are also biomarkers of pre-senescent cellular phenotype. Consistent with this, vitiligo cells showed a significant increase in p16 that did not correlate with the chronological age of the donor. Moreover, vitiligo melanocytes produced many biologically active proteins among the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SAPS), such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), matrix metallo proteinase-3 (MMP3), cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2), insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 and 7 (IGFBP3, IGFBP7). Together, these data argue for a complicated pathophysiologic puzzle underlying melanocytes degeneration resembling, from the biological point of view, neurodegenerative diseases. Our results suggest new possible targets for intervention that in combination with current therapies could correct melanocytes intrinsic defects.

Concept and approach of human signal-molecular-profiling database: a pilot study on depression using Lab-on-chips

Signal molecular profiling (SMP) in serum can reveal abundant medical information about the human body. The construction of a human signal-molecular-profiling database (HSMPD) will greatly prompt the research of medical science. However, some challenges hinder the construction of HSMPD. A promising strategy is proposed to provide a convenient way for the establishment of HSMPD. Firstly, a low-cost and high-throughput tool for measuring SMP should be developed and standardized. When the SMP-oriented tools were accepted by most hospitals worldwide, SMP information will be decoded by a cloud-based system and stored into the online database naturally. In the pilot study, an ultrasensitive Lab-on-chips (LOC) device was developed as a specific tool for SMP. Clinical serum samples from 10 women within 4 weeks of giving birth, including 2 patients with postpartum depression were studied by the LOC devices, since accumulating evidence has indicated that hormones and cytokines in patients with mood disorders are abnormal. HSMPD may be applied to diagnose depression in the future. Here, five kinds of signal molecules were quantified on the devices, namely, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), interleukin (IL)-2, IL-6 and IL-8. The preliminary results showed that the concentrations of IL-2 and IL-8 in the depression group may be higher than those in the control group, whereas the other kinds of signal molecules did not change significantly. Although the correlations are not enough to induct any diagnostic criterion, the SMP-oriented tool was verified. The results also indicated that the strategy to establish HSMPD is conceivable.

Effect of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) in morphine-induced tau protein hyperphosphorylation

Opioids have been widely used in clinical practice as potent pain relievers for centuries. However, opioids have many deleterious effects. It has been reported that opioid increases tau protein phosphorylation. Hyperphosphorylation of tau is also a pathological feature of Alzheimer's disease and other chronic neurodegenerative disorders. However, the underlying mechanism by which opioids enhance tau phosphorylation is not yet known. In this study, we treated rat embryo cortical neurons with morphine and observed its effect on tau phosphorylation. We found that morphine induced tau hyperphosphorylation and increased levels of phospho-JNK and phospho-p38; these effects were blocked by pretreatment with naloxone. Inhibition of JNK by SP600125 significantly reduced tau hyperphosphorylation in neurons treated with morphine. Similarly, SB203580, an antagonist of p38 MAPK, abolished tau hyperphosphorylation in neurons treated with morphine. Our data suggest that JNK/p38 MAPK, activated by morphine in an opioid receptor-dependent manner, may lead to tau hyperphosphorylation.