Nanoscale photosynthesis, the photophysics of neural cells, and artificial sight

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Greenbaum ◽  
M.S. Humayun ◽  
T. Kuritz ◽  
J.W. Lee ◽  
C.A. Sanders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Cells

Liposomes: Novel Drug Delivery Approach for Targeting Parkinson’s Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (37) ◽  
pp. 4721-4737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhumika Kumar ◽  
Mukesh Pandey ◽  
Faheem H. Pottoo ◽  
Faizana Fayaz ◽  
Anjali Sharma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Drug Delivery ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Blood Brain Barrier ◽  
Brain Barrier ◽  
Brain Targeting ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Blood Brain ◽  
The Brain

Parkinson’s disease is one of the most severe progressive neurodegenerative disorders, having a mortifying effect on the health of millions of people around the globe. The neural cells producing dopamine in the substantia nigra of the brain die out. This leads to symptoms like hypokinesia, rigidity, bradykinesia, and rest tremor. Parkinsonism cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be reduced with the intervention of medicinal drugs, surgical treatments, and physical therapies. Delivering drugs to the brain for treating Parkinson’s disease is very challenging. The blood-brain barrier acts as a highly selective semi-permeable barrier, which refrains the drug from reaching the brain. Conventional drug delivery systems used for Parkinson’s disease do not readily cross the blood barrier and further lead to several side-effects. Recent advancements in drug delivery technologies have facilitated drug delivery to the brain without flooding the bloodstream and by directly targeting the neurons. In the era of Nanotherapeutics, liposomes are an efficient drug delivery option for brain targeting. Liposomes facilitate the passage of drugs across the blood-brain barrier, enhances the efficacy of the drugs, and minimize the side effects related to it. The review aims at providing a broad updated view of the liposomes, which can be used for targeting Parkinson’s disease.

Determination of Glutamate and GABA Released by Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Using HILIC-ESI-MS/MS

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
Haoyu Lv ◽  
Yabin Tang ◽  
Fan Sun ◽  
Shimin An ◽  
Xinjie Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Embryonic Stem Cells ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells ◽  
Reversed Phase ◽  
Water Soluble ◽  
Substitution Matrix ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Esi Ms

Background:In recent years, more and more researches have shown that neurotransmitters can also be synthesized and released by peripheral non-neural cells. However, specificity and high sensitivity detection means were required for confirming ESCs autocrine glutamate and γ - aminobutyric acid (GABA). Glutamate and GABA are water-soluble and polar compounds which cannot be retained on a reversed phase C18 column, and their contents are often at a trace level. On the other hand, the biological matrix such as cell culture fluid contains a large number of amino acids, vitamins, carbohydrates, inorganic ions and other substances. Therefore, the main problem is the selection of the chromatographic column to avoid matrix interference.Objective:To establish a rapid and reliable method for the simultaneous determination of glutamate and GABA released from embryonic stem cells based on analytical chemistry.Methods:Glutamate and GABA released from mouse embryonic stem cells were determined on the basis of hydrophilic interaction chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem Mass Spectrometry (HILIC- ESI- MS/MS), using isotope internal standards and substitution matrix method.Results:Undifferentiated embryonic stem cells autocrine glutamate and GABA and will reach releasing- reuptacking dynamic equilibriums at different time points. In contrast, neither glutamate nor GABA releasing could be detected from the MEFs, indicating the specificity release of the mESCs in the applied analytic method.Conclusion:A novel, simple, sensitive, selective and quantitative method was developed for determination of the glutamate and GABA from mouse embryonic stem cells.

scholarly journals Emerging hiPSC Models for Drug Discovery in Neurodegenerative Diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 8196
Author(s):  
Dorit Trudler ◽  
Swagata Ghatak ◽  
Stuart A. Lipton
Keyword(s):  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Disease Modeling ◽  
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell ◽  
Neural Function ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Human Samples ◽  
Healthy Donors ◽  
Induced Pluripotent

Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of people worldwide and are characterized by the chronic and progressive deterioration of neural function. Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington’s disease (HD), represent a huge social and economic burden due to increasing prevalence in our aging society, severity of symptoms, and lack of effective disease-modifying therapies. This lack of effective treatments is partly due to a lack of reliable models. Modeling neurodegenerative diseases is difficult because of poor access to human samples (restricted in general to postmortem tissue) and limited knowledge of disease mechanisms in a human context. Animal models play an instrumental role in understanding these diseases but fail to comprehensively represent the full extent of disease due to critical differences between humans and other mammals. The advent of human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) technology presents an advantageous system that complements animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. Coupled with advances in gene-editing technologies, hiPSC-derived neural cells from patients and healthy donors now allow disease modeling using human samples that can be used for drug discovery.

scholarly journals Cannabidiol induces autophagy via ERK1/2 activation in neural cells

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Talita A. M. Vrechi ◽  
Anderson H. F. F. Leão ◽  
Ingrid B. M. Morais ◽  
Vanessa C. Abílio ◽  
Antonio W. Zuardi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Nervous System ◽  
Neurodegenerative Disorders ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Cannabis Sativa ◽  
Autophagic Flux ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Human Neuroblastoma ◽  
Trpv1 Receptor ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Catabolic Process

AbstractAutophagy is a lysosomal catabolic process essential to cell homeostasis and is related to the neuroprotection of the central nervous system. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychotropic phytocannabinoid present in Cannabis sativa. Many therapeutic actions have been linked to this compound, including autophagy activation. However, the precise underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear, and the downstream functional significance of these actions has yet to be determined. Here, we investigated CBD-evoked effects on autophagy in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y and murine astrocyte cell lines. We found that CBD-induced autophagy was substantially reduced in the presence of CB1, CB2 and TRPV1 receptor antagonists, AM 251, AM 630 and capsazepine, respectively. This result strongly indicates that the activation of these receptors mediates the autophagic flux. Additionally, we demonstrated that CBD activates autophagy through ERK1/2 activation and AKT suppression. Interestingly, CBD-mediated autophagy activation is dependent on the autophagy initiator ULK1, but mTORC1 independent. Thus, it is plausible that a non-canonical pathway is involved. Our findings collectively provide evidence that CBD stimulates autophagy signal transduction via crosstalk between the ERK1/2 and AKT kinases, which represent putative regulators of cell proliferation and survival. Furthermore, our study sheds light on potential therapeutic cannabinoid targets that could be developed for treating neurodegenerative disorders.

scholarly journals TAMI-57. MEDULLOBLASTOMA UTILIZE GABA TRANSAMINASE TO SURVIVE IN THE CEREBROSPINAL FLUID MICROENVIRONMENT AND PROMOTE LEPTOMENINGEAL DISSEMINATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. ii225-ii226
Author(s):  
Vahan Martirosian ◽  
Krutika Deshpande ◽  
Hao Zhou ◽  
Keyue Shen ◽  
Vazgen Stepanosyan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Source ◽  
Cerebrospinal Fluid ◽  
Oxidative Phosphorylation ◽  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Metastatic Cancer ◽  
Leptomeningeal Metastases ◽  
Metabolic Phenotype ◽  
Leptomeningeal Disease ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Gaba Transaminase

Abstract Medulloblastoma (MB) is a malignant pediatric brain tumor. Studies have shown heterogeneous cells amongst the tumor bulk which mirror normal neural cells in various neurodevelopmental stages. To discern exploited mechanisms promoting MB leptomeningeal disease, we drew conclusions from developmental neurobiology. In normal differentiation, the metabolic phenotype in proliferating neural progenitor cells evolves from a glycolysis-dependent to an oxidative phosphorylation-reliant energetic profile in quiescent differentiated neurons. Cancer cells mirror this evolution, which also grants them the capability to utilize alternative nutrients in the microenvironment as an energy source. Considering metastatic cells are typically in a dormant state and primarily utilize oxidative phosphorylation, we hypothesized metastatic MB cells emulate a quiescent neuron-like cellular profile to survive in the cerebrospinal fluid and form leptomeningeal metastases. To examine this, we query the expression of GABA catabolic enzyme GABA transaminase (ABAT) in MB. GABA is found in the cerebellar and leptomeningeal microenvironments, and is utilized by metastatic cancer cells in the CNS as an energy source. We correlate an increase in ABAT expression with neurodevelopment and show heterogeneous expression of this protein in primary MB tumors. MB cells with increased expression of ABAT were slower-dividing, expressed a genetic and metabolic phenotype reminiscent of quiescent neuron-like cells, and had increased capability to metabolize GABA. Conversely, lower expression of ABAT was associated with an increased proliferation rate and correlated with a progenitor-like cellular profile. Transplantation of MB cells into the leptomeningeal compartment decreased proliferative capacity and enhanced ABAT expression. Xenograft models showed MB cells with ABAT knockdown had increased growth in the cerebellar microenvironment. Conversely, MB cells with ABAT overexpression transplanted into the cerebrospinal fluid formed leptomeningeal metastases whereas ABAT knockdown cells could not. These results suggest ABAT expression in MB cells can be modulated by the tumor microenvironment and is required to form leptomeningeal metastases.

scholarly journals Zika Virus Infection Leads to Demyelination and Axonal Injury in Mature CNS Cultures

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Verena Schultz ◽  
Stephanie L. Cumberworth ◽  
Quan Gu ◽  
Natasha Johnson ◽  
Claire L. Donald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Neural Development ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Zikv Infection ◽  
Axonal Pathology ◽  
Time Frames

Understanding how Zika virus (Flaviviridae; ZIKV) affects neural cells is paramount in comprehending pathologies associated with infection. Whilst the effects of ZIKV in neural development are well documented, impact on the adult nervous system remains obscure. Here, we investigated the effects of ZIKV infection in established mature myelinated central nervous system (CNS) cultures. Infection incurred damage to myelinated fibers, with ZIKV-positive cells appearing when myelin damage was first detected as well as axonal pathology, suggesting the latter was a consequence of oligodendroglia infection. Transcriptome analysis revealed host factors that were upregulated during ZIKV infection. One such factor, CCL5, was validated in vitro as inhibiting myelination. Transferred UV-inactivated media from infected cultures did not damage myelin and axons, suggesting that viral replication is necessary to induce the observed effects. These data show that ZIKV infection affects CNS cells even after myelination—which is critical for saltatory conduction and neuronal function—has taken place. Understanding the targets of this virus across developmental stages including the mature CNS, and the subsequent effects of infection of cell types, is necessary to understand effective time frames for therapeutic intervention.

scholarly journals Stick around: Cell–Cell Adhesion Molecules during Neocortical Development

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
David de Agustín-Durán ◽  
Isabel Mateos-White ◽  
Jaime Fabra-Beser ◽  
Cristina Gil-Sanz
Keyword(s):  
Cell Adhesion ◽  
Adhesion Molecules ◽  
Cell Adhesion Molecules ◽  
Neural Cells ◽  
Surface Receptors ◽  
Cellular Processes ◽  
Neocortical Development ◽  
Classical Cadherins ◽  
Adhesive Interactions ◽  
Cell Cell

The neocortex is an exquisitely organized structure achieved through complex cellular processes from the generation of neural cells to their integration into cortical circuits after complex migration processes. During this long journey, neural cells need to establish and release adhesive interactions through cell surface receptors known as cell adhesion molecules (CAMs). Several types of CAMs have been described regulating different aspects of neurodevelopment. Whereas some of them mediate interactions with the extracellular matrix, others allow contact with additional cells. In this review, we will focus on the role of two important families of cell–cell adhesion molecules (C-CAMs), classical cadherins and nectins, as well as in their effectors, in the control of fundamental processes related with corticogenesis, with special attention in the cooperative actions among the two families of C-CAMs.

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