Search results for " Spinal"
showing 10 items of 188 documents
Progranulin overexpression in sensory neurons attenuates neuropathic pain in mice: Role of autophagy
2016
Peripheral or central nerve injury is a frequent cause of chronic pain and the mechanisms are not fully understood. Using newly generated transgenic mice we show that progranulin overexpression in sensory neurons attenuates neuropathic pain after sciatic nerve injury and accelerates nerve healing. A yeast-2-hybrid screen revealed putative interactions of progranulin with autophagy-related proteins, ATG12 and ATG4b. This was supported by colocalization and proteomic studies showing regulations of ATG13 and ATG4b and other members of the autophagy network, lysosomal proteins and proteins involved in endocytosis. The association of progranulin with the autophagic pathway was functionally confi…
Targeting RNA structure in SMN2 reverses spinal muscular atrophy molecular phenotypes
2018
Modification of SMN2 exon 7 (E7) splicing is a validated therapeutic strategy against spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). However, a target-based approach to identify small-molecule E7 splicing modifiers has not been attempted, which could reveal novel therapies with improved mechanistic insight. Here, we chose as a target the stem-loop RNA structure TSL2, which overlaps with the 5′ splicing site of E7. A small-molecule TSL2-binding compound, homocarbonyltopsentin (PK4C9), was identified that increases E7 splicing to therapeutic levels and rescues downstream molecular alterations in SMA cells. High-resolution NMR combined with molecular modelling revealed that PK4C9 binds to pentaloop conformati…
Treatment with albumin-hydroxyoleic acid complex restores sensorimotor function in rats with spinal cord injury: Efficacy and gene expression regulat…
2017
Sensorimotor dysfunction following incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) is often characterized by paralysis, spasticity and pain. Previously, we showed that intrathecal (i.t.) administration of the albumin-oleic acid (A-OA) complex in rats with SCI produced partial improvement of these symptoms and that oral 2-hydroxyoleic acid (HOA, a non-hydrolyzable OA analogue), was efficacious in the modulation and treatment of nociception and pain-related anxiety, respectively. Here we observed that intrathecal treatment with the complex albumin-HOA (A-HOA) every 3 days following T9 spinal contusion injury improved locomotor function assessed with the Rotarod and inhibited TA noxious reflex activity in…
Drosophila SMN2minigene reporter model identifies moxifloxacin as a candidate therapy for SMA
2018
Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare and fatal neuromuscular disorder caused by the loss of alpha motor neurons. The affected individuals have mutated the ubiquitously expressed SMN1 gene resulting in the loss or reduction in the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein levels. However, an almost identical paralog exists in humans: SMN2. Pharmacological activation of SMN2 exon 7 inclusion by small molecules or modified antisense oligonucleotides is a valid approach to treat SMA. Here we describe an in vivo SMN2 minigene reporter system in Drosophila motor neurons that serves as a cost-effective, feasible, and stringent primary screening model for identifying chemicals capable of crossing the conser…
Two different pathogenic mechanisms, dying-back axonal neuropathy and pancreatic senescence, are present in the YG8R mouse model of Friedreich ataxia
2016
Frataxin (FXN) deficiency causes Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA), a multisystem disorder with neurological and non-neurological symptoms. FRDA pathophysiology combines developmental and degenerative processes of dorsal root ganglia (DRG), sensory nerves, dorsal columns and other central nervous structures. A dying-back mechanism has been proposed to explain the peripheral neuropathy and neuropathology. In addition, affected individuals have non-neuronal symptoms such as diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance. To go further in the understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of neuropathy and diabetes associated with the disease, we have investigated the humanized mouse YG8R model of FRDA. By bio…
A Novel Cervical Spinal Cord Window Preparation Allows for Two-Photon Imaging of T-Cell Interactions with the Cervical Spinal Cord Microvasculature d…
2017
T-cell migration across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a crucial step in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple scle rosis (MS). Two-photon intravital microscopy (2P-IVM) has been established as a powerful tool to study cell-cell interactions in inflammatory EAE lesions in living animals. In EAE, central nervous system inflammation is strongly pronounced in the spinal cord, an organ in which 2P-IVM imaging is technically very challenging and has been limited to the lumbar spinal cord. Here, we describe a novel spinal cord window preparation allowing to use 2P-IVM to image immune cell interactions with the cervical spinal cord micro…
CXCL10 and CCL21 Promote Migration of Pancreatic Cancer Cells Toward Sensory Neurons and Neural Remodeling in Tumors in Mice, Associated With Pain in…
2018
Background & Aims Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is frequently accompanied by excruciating pain, which has been associated with attraction of cancer cells and their invasion of intrapancreatic sensory nerves. Neutralization of the chemokine CCL2 reduced cancer-associated pain in a clinical trial, but there have been no systematic analyses of the highly diverse chemokine families and their receptors in PDAC. Methods We performed an open, unbiased RNA-interference screen of mammalian chemokines in co-cultures of mouse PDAC cells (K8484) and mouse peripheral sensory neurons, and confirmed findings in studies of DT8082 PDAC cells. We studied the effects of chemokines on migration of PD…
A predominantly glial origin of axonal ribosomes after nerve injury
2017
Axonal mRNA transport and local protein synthesis are crucial for peripheral axon regeneration. To date, it remains unclear how ribosomes localize to axons. They may be co-transported with mRNAs or, as suggested by recent studies, transferred from Schwann cells (SC). Here, we generated transgenic "RiboTracker" mice expressing tdTomato-tagged ribosomal protein L4 in specific cell types when crossed with Cre lines. Two neuronal RiboTracker-Cre lines displayed extremely low levels of axonal L4-tdTomato-positive ribosomes. In contrast, two glial RiboTracker-Cre lines revealed tagged ribosomes in sciatic nerve (SN) axons with increasing amounts after injury. Furthermore, non-RiboTracker dorsal r…
Vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) vertebral osteomyelitis after uneventful spinal surgery: A case report and literature review
2017
Abstract Objective Case report and literature review. Background Enterococcus faecium is an emerging pathogen responsible for post procedural infections in patients who have undergone spinal decompression surgery. In this case report, the authors discuss and review recent literature on approaches to post-operative spinal infection. Case report We herein report the case of a 55-year-old HIV-negative Caucasian Italian woman who showed vertebral osteomyelitis with abscesses around the interbody cage caused by an Enterococcus faecium vancomycin resistant gen-Van A, following a Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF). The same strain was detected in disc biopsy, urine culture and rectal sw…
Calcified Spinal Meningioma: A Lurking Danger
2017
Tumors of the spine with an intradural location have an incidence ranging from 3 to 10 per 100,000 persons per year, and intradural extramedullary tumors account for two thirds of all intraspinal neoplasms. Among these, spinal meningiomas account for 25%–46% of all spinal cord tumors. They develop from the arachnoid cells that differentiate from neural crest cells and, like cerebral meningioma, they have a slow-growing behavior. Although spinal meningiomas are not uncommon, calcified spinal meningioma is rare in spinal location. Calcified meningioma manifests with extensive matrix and tends to infiltrate the surrounding structures. It exhibits a growth pattern limited by an incompletely dev…