Project description:Wnt signaling has well established roles in development and cancer progression. Its roles during normal adult homeostasis are less well studied, but Wnt is a major stem cell regulating factor in adult tissues. Here we use an optogenetic model of amyloid beta aggregation to examine the effect of Wnt signaling on protein aggregation. We observe that Wnt activation rescues the detrimental effects of Amyloid. We analyze the gene expression changes downstream of Wnt that contribute to this rescue and find a protein misfolding response and a metabolic response, but the major factor we focus on is inflammation. Wnt expression reduces inflammation through repression of Toll activating factors, and chronic Toll activation reduces lifespan. We propose that the protective effect observed for lithium treatment functions at least in part through Wnt activation and inhibition of inflammation.
Project description:Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and is associated with the accumulation of amyloid peptide β in the brain parenchyma. Vascular damage and microvascular thrombosis contribute to the neuronal degeneration and the loss of brain function typical of this disease. In this study, we utilised a murine model of Alzheimer’s disease to evaluate the neurovascular effects of this disease. Upon detection of an increase in the phosphorylation of the endothelial surface receptor VE-cadherin, we focused our attention on endothelial cells.
Project description:Complement protein C1q is induced after injury in the brain and during Alzheimer's disease and has been shown to protect against amyloid-beta induced neuronal death. In this study, we used microarray approach to identify the pathways modulated by C1q that are associated with neuroprotection. Immature rat cortical primary neurons are treated with fibrillar amyloid-beta peptides and/or C1q for 3h before RNA extraction and hybridization on rat Affymetrix microarrays. Supplementary file: Processed/normalized, probe-level signal intensities from neurons treated with amyloid-beta or C1q. Median signal intensity used as global normalization method, done with JMP genomics (v5.0) software.
Project description:Dysregulated Wnt signalling is seen in approximately 30% of hepatocellular cancers, thus finding pathways downstream of activation of Wnt signalling is key. Using cre lox technology we have deleted the the adenomatous polyposis coli tumour suppressor protein (Apc) within the adult mouse liver and observed a rapid increase in nuclear beta-catenin and C-Myc. This is associated with an induction of proliferation leading to hepatomegally within 4 days of gene deletion. To investigate the downstream pathways responsible for these phenotypes we analysed the impact of inactivating Apc in the context of deficiency of the potentially key effectors beta-catenin and c-Myc. beta-catenin loss rescues both the proliferation and hepatomegally phenotypes following Apc loss. However c-Myc deletion, which rescues the phenotypes of Apc loss in the intestine, had no effect on the phenotypes of Apc loss. The consequences of deregulation the Wnt pathway within the liver are therefore strikingly different to those observed within the intestine, with the vast majority of Wnt targets beta-catenin dependent but c-Myc independent in the liver. Samples were collected from Genetcially modified mice of the genotypes indicated in the characteristics field. Gene recombination was induced using IP administration of beta-napthoflavone. Cohorts of samples were used to compare the affects of APC loss, cMYC loss and combined APC and cMYC loss in the liver (and compared to matched control samples in which the genes were not recombined).
Project description:Cranial neural crest (NCC)-derived chondrocyte precursors undergo a dynamic differentiation and maturation process to establish a scaffold for subsequent bone formation, alterations in which contribute to congenital birth defects. Here, we demonstrate that transcription factor and histone methyltransferase proteins Prdm3 and Prdm16 control the differentiation switch of cranial NCCs to craniofacial cartilage. Loss of either results in hypoplastic and unorganized chondrocytes due to impaired cellular orientation and polarity. We show that PRDMs regulate cartilage differentiation by controlling the timing of Wnt/β-catenin activity in strikingly different ways: prdm3 represses while prdm16 activates global gene expression, though both by regulating Wnt enhanceosome activity and chromatin accessibility. Finally, we show that manipulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pharmacologically or generating prdm3-/-;prdm16-/- double mutants rescues craniofacial cartilage defects. Our findings reveal upstream regulatory roles for Prdm3 and Prdm16 in cranial NCCs to control Wnt/β-catenin transcriptional activity during chondrocyte differentiation to ensure proper development of the craniofacial skeleton.
Project description:We found that β-amyloid accumulation is modulated in HAOEC cells by overexpression or blocking of lncRNA BACE1-AS, which in turn regulates both BACE1 mRNA and protein expression. BACE1 is key-enzyme in the synthesis of β-amyloid from Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). The transcriptomic changes mediated by 400nM β-amyloid was investigated in HAOEC cells.
Project description:Cortical type-I astrocytes were cultured on the beta-amyloid peptide 25-35 fragment for 12hr, 1d, 3d, and 5d. Keywords = amyloid astrocytes rat Keywords: time-course
Project description:Dysregulated Wnt signalling is seen in approximately 30% of hepatocellular cancers, thus finding pathways downstream of activation of Wnt signalling is key. Using cre lox technology we have deleted the the adenomatous polyposis coli tumour suppressor protein (Apc) within the adult mouse liver and observed a rapid increase in nuclear beta-catenin and C-Myc. This is associated with an induction of proliferation leading to hepatomegally within 4 days of gene deletion. To investigate the downstream pathways responsible for these phenotypes we analysed the impact of inactivating Apc in the context of deficiency of the potentially key effectors beta-catenin and c-Myc. beta-catenin loss rescues both the proliferation and hepatomegally phenotypes following Apc loss. However c-Myc deletion, which rescues the phenotypes of Apc loss in the intestine, had no effect on the phenotypes of Apc loss. The consequences of deregulation the Wnt pathway within the liver are therefore strikingly different to those observed within the intestine, with the vast majority of Wnt targets beta-catenin dependent but c-Myc independent in the liver.