Browsing by Author "Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine"

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    FASN regulates cellular response to genotoxic treatments by increasing PARP-1 expression and DNA repair activity via NF-κB and SP1
    (National Academy of Sciences, 2016-10-24) Wu, Xi; Dong, Zizheng; Wang, Chao J.; Barlow, Lincoln James; Fako, Valerie; Serrano, Moises A.; Zou, Yue; Liu, Jing-Yuan; Zhang, Jian-Ting; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine
    Fatty acid synthase (FASN), the sole cytosolic mammalian enzyme for de novo lipid synthesis, is crucial for cancer cell survival and associates with poor prognosis. FASN overexpression has been found to cause resistance to genotoxic insults. Here we tested the hypothesis that FASN regulates DNA repair to facilitate survival against genotoxic insults and found that FASN suppresses NF-κB but increases specificity protein 1 (SP1) expression. NF-κB and SP1 bind to a composite element in the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) promoter in a mutually exclusive manner and regulate PARP-1 expression. Up-regulation of PARP-1 by FASN in turn increases Ku protein recruitment and DNA repair. Furthermore, lipid deprivation suppresses SP1 expression, which is able to be rescued by palmitate supplementation. However, lipid deprivation or palmitate supplementation has no effect on NF-κB expression. Thus, FASN may regulate NF-κB and SP1 expression using different mechanisms. Altogether, we conclude that FASN regulates cellular response against genotoxic insults by up-regulating PARP-1 and DNA repair via NF-κB and SP1.
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    Methylmercury exposure increases lipocalin related (lpr) and decreases activated in blocked unfolded protein response (abu) genes and specific miRNAs in Caenorhabditis elegans
    (Elsevier, 2013-10-24) Rudgalvyte, Martina; VanDuyn, Natalia; Aarnio, Vuokko; Heikkinen, Liisa; Peltonen, Juhani; Lakso, Merja; Nass, Richard; Wong, Garry; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine
    Methylmercury (MeHg) is a persistent environmental and dietary contaminant that causes serious adverse developmental and physiologic effects at multiple cellular levels. In order to understand more fully the consequences of MeHg exposure at the molecular level, we profiled gene and miRNA transcripts from the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Animals were exposed to MeHg (10µM) from embryo to larval 4 (L4) stage and RNAs were isolated. RNA-seq analysis on the Illumina platform revealed 541 genes up- and 261 genes down-regulated at a cutoff of 2-fold change and false discovery rate-corrected significance q < 0.05. Among the up-regulated genes were those previously shown to increase under oxidative stress conditions including hsp-16.11 (2.5-fold), gst-35 (10.1-fold), and fmo-2(58.5-fold). In addition, we observed up-regulation of 6 out of 7 lipocalin related (lpr) family genes and down regulation of 7 out of 15 activated in blocked unfolded protein response (abu) genes. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis highlighted the effect of genes related to development and organism growth. miRNA-seq analysis revealed 6–8 fold down regulation of mir-37-3p, mir-41-5p, mir-70-3p, and mir-75-3p. Our results demonstrate the effects of MeHg on specific transcripts encoding proteins in oxidative stress responses and in ER stress pathways. Pending confirmation of these transcript changes at protein levels, their association and dissocation characteristics with interaction partners, and integration of these signals, these findings indicate broad and dynamic mechanisms by which MeHg exerts its harmful effects.
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    The role of charge in the toxicity of polymer-coated cerium oxide nanomaterials to Caenorhabditis elegans
    (Elsevier, 2017-10) Arndt, Devrah A.; Oostveen, Emily K.; Triplett, Judy; Butterfield, D. Allan; Tsyusko, Olga V.; Collin, Blanche E.; Starnes, Daniel L.; Cai, Jian; Klein, Jon B.; Nass, Richard; Unrine, Jason M.; Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine
    This study examined the impact of surface functionalization and charge on ceria nanomaterial toxicity to Caenorhabditis elegans. The examined endpoints included mortality, reproduction, protein expression, and protein oxidation profiles. Caenorhabditis elegans were exposed to identical 2–5 nm ceria nanomaterial cores which were coated with cationic (diethylaminoethyl dextran; DEAE), anionic (carboxymethyl dextran; CM), and non-ionic (dextran; DEX) polymers. Mortality and reproductive toxicity of DEAE-CeO2 was approximately two orders of magnitude higher than for CM-CeO2 or DEX-CeO2. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis with orbitrap mass spectrometry identification revealed changes in the expression profiles of several mitochondrial-related proteins and proteins that are expressed in the C. elegans intestine. However, each type of CeO2 material exhibited a distinct protein expression profile. Increases in protein carbonyls and protein-bound 3-nitrotyrosine were also observed for some proteins, indicating oxidative and nitrosative damage. Taken together the results indicate that the magnitude of toxicity and toxicity pathways vary greatly due to surface functionalization of CeO2 nanomaterials.