Search results for "CYTOSKELETON"

A Shotgun Proteomics Approach Reveals a New Toxic Role for Alzheimer's Disease Aβ Peptide: Spliceosome Impairment.

2017

Proteomic changes have been described in many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the early events in the onset of the pathology are yet to be fully elucidated. A cell model system in which LAN5 neuroblastoma cells were incubated for a short time with a recombinant form of Aβ42 was utilized. Proteins extracted from these cells were subjected to shotgun proteomics analysis by LTQ-Orbitrap-MS followed by label-free quantitation. By bioinformatics tools we found that the most significant of those found to be up-regulated were related to cytoskeletal dynamics (Rho related) and membrane-related processes. The most significant of the down-regulated proteins we…

The Stress-Inducible Protein DRR1 Exerts Distinct Effects on Actin Dynamics.

2018

Cytoskeletal dynamics are pivotal to memory, learning, and stress physiology, and thus psychiatric diseases. Downregulated in renal cell carcinoma 1 (DRR1) protein was characterized as the link between stress, actin dynamics, neuronal function, and cognition. To elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms, we undertook a domain analysis of DRR1 and probed the effects on actin binding, polymerization, and bundling, as well as on actin-dependent cellular processes. Methods: DRR1 domains were cloned and expressed as recombinant proteins to perform in vitro analysis of actin dynamics (binding, bundling, polymerization, and nucleation). Cellular actin-dependent processes were analyzed in trans…

Actin Filaments Are Involved in the Coupling of V0-V1 Domains of Vacuolar H+-ATPase at the Golgi Complex*

2016

We previously reported that actin-depolymerizing agents promote the alkalization of the Golgi stack and the trans-Golgi network. The main determinant of acidic pH at the Golgi is the vacuolar-type H+-translocating ATPase (V-ATPase), whose V1 domain subunits B and C bind actin. We have generated a GFP-tagged subunit B2 construct (GFP-B2) that is incorporated into the V1 domain, which in turn is coupled to the V0 sector. GFP-B2 subunit is enriched at distal Golgi compartments in HeLa cells. Subcellular fractionation, immunoprecipitation, and inversal FRAP experiments show that the actin depolymerization promotes the dissociation of V1-V0 domains, which entails subunit B2 translocation from Go…

New insights into the clinical and molecular spectrum of the novel CYFIP2-related neurodevelopmental disorder and impairment of the WRC-mediated acti…

2021

International audience; Purpose: A few de novo missense variants in the cytoplasmic FMRP-interacting protein 2 (CYFIP2) gene have recently been described as a novel cause of severe intellectual disability, seizures, and hypotonia in 18 individuals, with p.Arg87 substitutions in the majority.Methods: We assembled data from 19 newly identified and all 18 previously published individuals with CYFIP2 variants. By structural modeling and investigation of WAVE-regulatory complex (WRC)-mediated actin polymerization in six patient fibroblast lines we assessed the impact of CYFIP2 variants on the WRC.Results: Sixteen of 19 individuals harbor two previously described and 11 novel (likely) disease-ass…

Neuronal Cytoskeleton in Intellectual Disability: From Systems Biology and Modeling to Therapeutic Opportunities

2021

Intellectual disability (ID) is a pathological condition characterized by limited intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors. It affects 1–3% of the worldwide population, and no pharmacological therapies are currently available. More than 1000 genes have been found mutated in ID patients pointing out that, despite the common phenotype, the genetic bases are highly heterogeneous and apparently unrelated. Bibliomic analysis reveals that ID genes converge onto a few biological modules, including cytoskeleton dynamics, whose regulation depends on Rho GTPases transduction. Genetic variants exert their effects at different levels in a hierarchical arrangement, starting from the molecular lev…

The stressed cytoskeleton: How actin dynamics can shape stress-related consequences on synaptic plasticity and complex behavior

2015

Stress alters synaptic plasticity but the molecular and cellular mechanisms through which environmental stimuli modulate synaptic function remain to be elucidated. Actin filaments are the major structural component of synapses and their rearrangements by actin-binding proteins (ABPs) are critical for fine-tuning synaptic plasticity. Accumulating evidence suggests that some ABPs are specifically regulated by stress and stress-related effectors such as glucocorticoids and corticotropin releasing hormone. ABPs may thus be central in stress-induced perturbations at the level of synaptic plasticity, leading to impairments in behavioral domains including cognitive performance and social behavior.…

The swinholide biosynthesis gene cluster from a terrestrial cyanobacterium, Nostoc sp. strain UHCC 0450

2017

ABSTRACT Swinholides are 42-carbon ring polyketides with a 2-fold axis of symmetry. They are potent cytotoxins that disrupt the actin cytoskeleton. Swinholides were discovered from the marine sponge Theonella sp. and were long suspected to be produced by symbiotic bacteria. Misakinolide, a structural variant of swinholide, was recently demonstrated to be the product of a symbiotic heterotrophic proteobacterium. Here, we report the production of swinholide A by an axenic strain of the terrestrial cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. strain UHCC 0450. We located the 85-kb trans -AT polyketide synthase (PKS) swinholide biosynthesis gene cluster from a draft genome of Nostoc sp. UHCC 0450. The swinholide …

Biomineralization toolkit: the importance of sample cleaning prior to the characterization of biomineral proteomes.

2013

In an interesting work published recently in PNAS, Drake et al. (1) presented a proteomic study of the skeleton from the stony coral Stylophora pistillata . This study identified proteins that are associated to the mineral phase (i.e., that potentially contribute to shape the skeleton). In other words, this set of proteins is supposed to represent the so-called “biomineralization toolkit.” Although some of the 36 proteins reported in Drake et al. (1) appear as genuine extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins related to biomineralization, such as coral acid-rich proteins or carbonic anhydrase, some others are obvious intracellular contaminants that should not be considered as skeletal organic mat…

2013

Controlling the position of the nucleus is vital for a number of cellular processes from yeast to humans. In Drosophila nurse cells, nuclear positioning is crucial during dumping, when nurse cells contract and expel their contents into the oocyte. We provide evidence that in nurse cells, continuous filopodia-like actin cables, growing from the plasma membrane and extending to the nucleus, achieve nuclear positioning. These actin cables move nuclei away from ring canals. When nurse cells contract, actin cables associate laterally with the nuclei, in some cases inducing nuclear turning so that actin cables become partially wound around the nuclei. Our data suggest that a perinuclear actin mes…

Cytotoxicity of 35 medicinal plants from Sudan towards sensitive and multidrug-resistant cancer cells

2015

Abstract Background Cancer is a complex disease with multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations. Since decades, the hallmark of cancer therapy is chemotherapy. Cytotoxic drugs erase rapidly dividing cells without sufficient differentiation between normal and cancerous cells resulting in severe side effects in normal tissues. Recently, strategies for cancer treatment focused on targeting specific proteins involved in tumor growth and progression. The present study was designed to investigate the cytotoxicity of 65 crude extracts from 35 Sudanese medicinal plants towards various cancer cell lines expressing molecular mechanisms of resistance towards classical chemotherapeutics (two ATP-bindi…