Browsing by Subject "Resistance"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Amyloid and Tau Pathology Associations With Personality Traits, Neuropsychiatric Symptoms, and Cognitive Lifestyle in the Preclinical Phases of Sporadic and Autosomal Dominant Alzheimer’s Disease
    (Elsevier, 2021) Pichet Binette, Alexa; Vachon-Presseau, Étienne; Morris, John; Bateman, Randall; Benzinger, Tammie; Collins, D. Louis; Poirier, Judes; Breitner, John C. S.; Villeneuve, Sylvia; Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN); PREVENT-AD Research Group; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    Background: Major prevention trials for Alzheimer's disease (AD) are now focusing on multidomain lifestyle interventions. However, the exact combination of behavioral factors related to AD pathology remains unclear. In 2 cohorts of cognitively unimpaired individuals at risk of AD, we examined which combinations of personality traits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and cognitive lifestyle (years of education or lifetime cognitive activity) related to the pathological hallmarks of AD, amyloid-β, and tau deposits. Methods: A total of 115 older adults with a parental or multiple-sibling family history of sporadic AD (PREVENT-AD [PRe-symptomatic EValuation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for AD] cohort) underwent amyloid and tau positron emission tomography and answered several questionnaires related to behavioral attributes. Separately, we studied 117 mutation carriers from the DIAN (Dominant Inherited Alzheimer Network) study group cohort with amyloid positron emission tomography and behavioral data. Using partial least squares analysis, we identified latent variables relating amyloid or tau pathology with combinations of personality traits, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and cognitive lifestyle. Results: In PREVENT-AD, lower neuroticism, neuropsychiatric burden, and higher education were associated with less amyloid deposition (p = .014). Lower neuroticism and neuropsychiatric features, along with higher measures of openness and extraversion, were related to less tau deposition (p = .006). In DIAN, lower neuropsychiatric burden and higher education were also associated with less amyloid (p = .005). The combination of these factors accounted for up to 14% of AD pathology. Conclusions: In the preclinical phase of both sporadic and autosomal dominant AD, multiple behavioral features were associated with AD pathology. These results may suggest potential pathways by which multidomain interventions might help delay AD onset or progression.
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    Antibiotic Discovery Targeting Bacterial GroEL/GroES Chaperonin Systems
    (2018-07-29) Kunkle, Trent A.; Johnson, Steven M.; Georgiadis, Millie M.; Hoang, Quyen Q.
    The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organizations (WHO) have highlighted six species of highly drug-resistant bacteria, commonly termed the ESKAPE pathogens, that new antibacterials are urgently needed to treat). The ESKAPE pathogens account for over two-million infections and have healthcare costs upwards of $20 billion dollars annually. Over the past several decades, pharmaceutical companies have drastically reduced their research programs for developing new antibacterial agents. As well, bacteria are predisposed to rapidly generate resistance against these “me too” drugs, making this strategy a temporary stop-gap in our ability to fight these pathogens. This has left the burden to identify new antibiotics that function through fundamentally unique mechanisms of action to academia. Towards this goal, we are developing a unique antibacterial strategy that functions through targeting the bacterial GroEL chaperonin systems. GroEL is a molecular chaperone that helps fold proteins into their functional states. Being an essential protein, inhibiting GroEL activity leads to global aggregation and bacterial cell death. We previously reported a high-throughput screening effort that identified 235 GroEL inhibitors. A subsequent study with a subset of these inhibitors identified several that kill bacteria. To follow-up, we have synthesized 43 analogs of a hit-to-lead molecule, compound 1, containing systematic deletions of substituents and substructures to determine the essential parts of the scaffold for inhibiting GroEL and killing bacteria. Along with inhibiting GroEL, several compound 1 analogs exhibit >50-fold therapeutic windows between antibacterial efficacy and cytotoxicity to human liver and kidney cells in cell culture. Evaluation of two lead candidates (1 and 11) in a gain-of-resistance assay indicated that MRSA bacteria were not able to easily generate resistance to this compound class. Compound 1 also exhibited the ability to permeate through already established S. aureus biofilms and maintain its bactericidal effects, whereas vancomycin could not. Having established initial structure-activity relationships for the compound 1 substituents and substructures in this study, future efforts will focus on optimizing the antibacterial effects of lead candidates and reducing their off-target toxicity to human cells.
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    Corrigendum: eIF3a Regulation of NHEJ Repair Protein Synthesis and Cellular Response to Ionizing Radiation
    (Frontiers Media, 2021-01-07) Tumia, Rima; Wang, Chao J.; Dong, Tianhan; Ma, Shijie; Beebe, Jenny; Chen, Juan; Dong, Zizheng; Liu, Jing-Yuan; Zhang, Jian-Ting; Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine
    [This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2020.00753.].
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    Hypoxia Resistance Is an Inherent Phenotype of the Mouse Flexor Digitorum Brevis Skeletal Muscle
    (Oxford University Press, 2023-03-21) Amorese, Adam J.; Minchew, Everett C.; Tarpey, Michael D.; Readyoff, Andrew T.; Williamson, Nicholas C.; Schmidt, Cameron A.; McMillin, Shawna L.; Goldberg, Emma J.; Terwilliger, Zoe S.; Spangenburg, Quincy A.; Witczak, Carol A.; Brault, Jeffrey J.; Abel, E. Dale; McClung, Joseph M.; Fisher-Wellman, Kelsey H.; Spangenburg, Espen E.; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of Medicine
    The various functions of skeletal muscle (movement, respiration, thermogenesis, etc.) require the presence of oxygen (O2). Inadequate O2 bioavailability (ie, hypoxia) is detrimental to muscle function and, in chronic cases, can result in muscle wasting. Current therapeutic interventions have proven largely ineffective to rescue skeletal muscle from hypoxic damage. However, our lab has identified a mammalian skeletal muscle that maintains proper physiological function in an environment depleted of O2. Using mouse models of in vivo hindlimb ischemia and ex vivo anoxia exposure, we observed the preservation of force production in the flexor digitorum brevis (FDB), while in contrast the extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus muscles suffered loss of force output. Unlike other muscles, we found that the FDB phenotype is not dependent on mitochondria, which partially explains the hypoxia resistance. Muscle proteomes were interrogated using a discovery-based approach, which identified significantly greater expression of the transmembrane glucose transporter GLUT1 in the FDB as compared to the EDL and soleus. Through loss-and-gain-of-function approaches, we determined that GLUT1 is necessary for the FDB to survive hypoxia, but overexpression of GLUT1 was insufficient to rescue other skeletal muscles from hypoxic damage. Collectively, the data demonstrate that the FDB is uniquely resistant to hypoxic insults. Defining the mechanisms that explain the phenotype may provide insight towards developing approaches for preventing hypoxia-induced tissue damage.
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    Inhibiting the Plasmodium eIF2α Kinase PK4 Prevents Artemisinin-Induced Latency
    (Elsevier, 2017-12) Zhang, Min; Gallego-Delgado, Julio; Fernandez-Arias, Cristina; Waters, Norman C.; Rodriguez, Ana; Tsu, Moriya; Wek, Ronald C.; Nussenzweig, Victor; Sullivan, William J., Jr.; Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Medicine
    Artemisinin and its derivatives (ARTs) are frontline antimalarial drugs. However, ART monotherapy is associated with a high frequency of recrudescent infection, resulting in treatment failure. A subset of parasites is thought to undergo ART-induced latency, but the mechanisms remain unknown. Here, we report that ART treatment results in phosphorylation of the parasite eukaryotic initiation factor-2α (eIF2α), leading to repression of general translation and latency induction. Enhanced phosphorylated eIF2α correlates with high rates of recrudescence following ART, and inhibiting eIF2α dephosphorylation renders parasites less sensitive to ART treatment. ART-induced eIF2α phosphorylation is mediated by the Plasmodium eIF2α kinase, PK4. Overexpression of a PK4 dominant-negative or pharmacological inhibition of PK4 blocks parasites from entering latency and abolishes recrudescence after ART treatment of infected mice. These results show that translational control underlies ART-induced latency and that interference with this stress response may resolve the clinical problem of recrudescent infection.
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    Microbiome and Cancers, With Focus on Genitourinary Tumors
    (Frontiers, 2019-03-26) Cimadamore, Alessia; Santoni, Matteo; Massari, Francesco; Gasparrini, Silvia; Cheng, Liang; Lopez-Beltran, Antonio; Montironi, Rodolfo; Scarpelli, Marina; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
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    Neratinib, a pan ERBB/HER inhibitor, restores sensitivity of PTEN-null, BRAFV600E melanoma to BRAF/MEK inhibition
    (Frontiers Media, 2024-05-16) DuBose, Evan; Bevill, Samantha M.; Mitchell, Dana K.; Sciaky, Noah; Golitz, Brian T.; Dixon, Shelley A. H.; Rhodes, Steven D.; Bear, James E.; Johnson, Gary L.; Angus, Steven P.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Introduction: Approximately 50% of melanomas harbor an activating BRAFV600E mutation. Standard of care involves a combination of inhibitors targeting mutant BRAF and MEK1/2, the substrate for BRAF in the MAPK pathway. PTEN loss-of-function mutations occur in ~40% of BRAFV600E melanomas, resulting in increased PI3K/AKT activity that enhances resistance to BRAF/MEK combination inhibitor therapy. Methods: To compare the response of PTEN null to PTEN wild-type cells in an isogenic background, CRISPR/Cas9 was used to knock out PTEN in a melanoma cell line that harbors a BRAFV600E mutation. RNA sequencing, functional kinome analysis, and drug synergy screening were employed in the context of BRAF/MEK inhibition. Results: RNA sequencing and functional kinome analysis revealed that the loss of PTEN led to an induction of FOXD3 and an increase in expression of the FOXD3 target gene, ERBB3/HER3. Inhibition of BRAF and MEK1/2 in PTEN null, BRAFV600E cells dramatically induced the expression of ERBB3/HER3 relative to wild-type cells. A synergy screen of epigenetic modifiers and kinase inhibitors in combination with BRAFi/MEKi revealed that the pan ERBB/HER inhibitor, neratinib, could reverse the resistance observed in PTEN null, BRAFV600E cells. Conclusions: The findings indicate that PTEN null BRAFV600E melanoma exhibits increased reliance on ERBB/HER signaling when treated with clinically approved BRAFi/MEKi combinations. Future studies are warranted to test neratinib reversal of BRAFi/MEKi resistance in patient melanomas expressing ERBB3/HER3 in combination with its dimerization partner ERBB2/HER2.