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Human DOPA Decarboxylase: Catalysis and Involvement in Pharmacological Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease and Aromatic Amino Acid Decarboxylase Deficiency
Published in Peter Grunwald, Pharmaceutical Biocatalysis, 2020
Mariarita Bertoldi, Giada Rossignoli
PD is a complex neurodegenerative disease characterized by severe motor symptoms due to the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (Aminoff, 1994; Feany and Bender, 2000; Masliah et al., 2000; Hauser, 2009). Since DDC is present in these neurons, it follows that, even if not directly, it is involved in PD, since it is the fundamental enzyme for the synthesis of dopamine. Hallmarks of PD are the Lewy’s bodies, cytoplasmic aggregates composed by alpha-synuclein and other proteins. The process of neurodegeneration and protein aggregation is presently under extensive investigation. PD patients present motor symptoms such as hypokinesia, tremor at rest, rigidity, postural instability, and freezing. Non-motor symptoms are cognitive and behavioral degeneration, sleep disorders, autonomic dysfunctions (Chaudhuri and Schapira, 2009). Unless a small percentage of inheritance (Lesage and Brice, 2009), the majority of patients are sporadic/random cases due to multiple genetic susceptibilities and environmental factors. The role played by DDC in PD is related to its decreased level in the central nervous system due to neurons depletion, this leading to an aberrant production of dopamine.
Fractal Dimensions Analysis and Morphological Investigation of Nanomedicine by Machine-Learning Methods
Published in Omari V. Mukbaniani, Tamara N. Tatrishvili, Marc J. M. Abadie, Science and Technology of Polymers and Advanced Materials, 2019
Scientists sometimes refer to Parkinson’s disease as a synucleinopathy (due to an abnormal accumulation of alpha-synuclein protein in the brain) to distinguish it from other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease where the brain accumulates tau protein [13]. Considerable clinical and pathological overlap exists between tauopathies and synucleinopathies. In contrast to Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease presents most commonly with memory loss, and the cardinal signs of Parkinson’s disease (slowness, tremor, stiffness, and postural instability) are not normal features of Alzheimer’s. In the next section, the common medicines are introduced for above diseases.
Microbial Biotechnology
Published in Nwadiuto (Diuto) Esiobu, James Chukwuma Ogbonna, Charles Oluwaseun Adetunji, Olawole O. Obembe, Ifeoma Maureen Ezeonu, Abdulrazak B. Ibrahim, Benjamin Ewa Ubi, Microbiomes and Emerging Applications, 2022
Olawole O. Obembe, Nwadiuto (Diuto) Esiobu, O. S. Aworunse, Nneka R. Agbakoba
PD or simply Parkinson’s is a long-term neurogenerative disorder of the CNS that affects movements. Symptoms of PD include difficulty in walking, tremors, presence of alpha-synuclein (αSyn) as well as inflammatory cytokines within the brain (JNPD, 2017). The production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), like acetate and butyrate, by gut bacteria, when they breakdown dietary fiber, can also activate an immune response in the brain.
Curcumin offsets PTZ-induced epilepsy: involving inhibition of apoptosis, wnt/β-catenin, and autophagy pathways
Published in Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 2020
Mona Hamdy, Ashraf Antar, Mohamed El-Mesery, Mohammed El-Shafey, Amr N. Ali, Khaled M. Abbas, Osama Ali. Abulseoud, Abdelaziz M. Hussein
Lastly, we investigated the expression of alpha synuclein in hippocampal neurons in PTZ-kindled rats after curcumin treatment. Alpha synuclein is a specific protein present in the presynaptic terminals of neurons [11], which controls the release of the neurotransmitter and recycling of its vesicles [12]. In the present study we found significant upregulation of alpha synuclein in rat hippocampus. These findings are in line with previous studies [10,33]. On the other hand, curcumin treatment caused significant attenuation in alpha synuclein in hippocampal neurons suggesting that downregulation of alpha synuclein might be a mechanism for the antiepileptic effect of curcumin. We hypothesized that attenuation of oxidative stress by curcumin (potent antioxidant) leads to downregulation of alpha synuclein. In agreement with this hypothesis, Puspita et al. [34] demonstrated the role of oxidative stress in development and accumulation of alpha synuclein aggregates in Parkinson disease.
The New Zealand Parkinson’s progression programme
Published in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2023
Michael R. MacAskill, Toni L. Pitcher, Tracy R. Melzer, Daniel J. Myall, Kyla-Louise Horne, Reza Shoorangiz, Mustafa M. Almuqbel, Leslie Livingston, Sophie Grenfell, Maddie J. Pascoe, Ethan T. Marshall, Steven Marsh, Sarah E. Perry, Wassilios G. Meissner, Catherine Theys, Campbell J. Le Heron, Ross J. Keenan, John C. Dalrymple-Alford, Tim J. Anderson
A collaboration with researchers at the US National Institutes of Health is focussed on alpha-synuclein and other neurodegeneration-associated proteins from neuron-derived extracellular vesicles (in preparation), while our plasma samples have been used to investigate the association between vitamin C (Spencer et al. 2020) and cGP (Fan et al. 2020) in disease progression and cognitive decline. Currently we are undertaking a pilot project to assess the feasibility of measuring alpha-synuclein from tear samples. In the future it would be advantageous to add CSF sample collection to the programme, however this is more invasive, and the cost and risks to ongoing study retention need to be balanced against the value of the data.
The current trends in the green syntheses of titanium oxide nanoparticles and their applications
Published in Green Chemistry Letters and Reviews, 2018
Muhammad Nadeem, Duangjai Tungmunnithum, Christophe Hano, Bilal Haider Abbasi, Syed Salman Hashmi, Waqar Ahmad, Adnan Zahir
Various biological derivatives as a green source for nanoparticle synthesis have also been utilized apart from micro and macro organisms Balasooriya et al. (62). However, only a few researchers have particularly explored the use of biological derivatives for biomimetic synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles. For instance, Farag et al. (63) utilized cellulose in order to synthesize TiO2 nanoparticle having average size of 5–10 nm. The peptide R5, biological derivative of Cylindrothica fusirormis have also been exploited for the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles Sewell and Wright (64). Titanium nano wires synthesized using alpha synuclein, a protein have been reported by Padalkar et al. (65). Bacterial flagella were used by Li et al 2012as template for production of titanium nanotubes. The lignocellulose waste material derived from rice straw has also been utilized for the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles Ramimoghadam et al. (66). Chen et al. (67) reported biomimetic synthesis to produce TiO2 nanoparticles using different enzymes. Rutile TiO2 nanoparticles were obtained when using glucose oxidase enzyme, catalase resulted in formation of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles while lysozyme resulted in formation of monoclinic anatase TiO2 nanoparticles Chen et al. (68). Some other notable biological derivatives used for biomimetic synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles are given in Table 3. In compassion with microbial-derived NPs, these derivatives based NPs are safe, cost efficient and scalable as well. Such NPs could be scaled for commercial applications including food and pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, more studies should be carried out to address their safety/toxicity.