MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the regulation of various cellular processes including pathological conditions. MiRNA networks have been extensively researched in age-related degenerative ...diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and heart failure. Thus, miRNA has been studied from different approaches, in vivo, in vitro, and in silico including miRNA networks. Networks linking diverse biomedical entities unveil information not readily observable by other means. This work focuses on biological networks related to Breast cancer susceptibility 1 (BRCA1) in AD and breast cancer (BC). Using various bioinformatics approaches, we identified subnetworks common to AD and BC that suggest they are linked. According to our results, miR-107 was identified as a potentially good candidate for both AD and BC treatment (targeting BRCA1/2 and PTEN in both diseases), accompanied by miR-146a and miR-17. The analysis also confirmed the involvement of the miR-17-92 cluster, and miR-124-3p, and highlighted the importance of poorly researched miRNAs such as mir-6785 mir-6127, mir-6870, or miR-8485. After filtering the in silico analysis results, we found 49 miRNA molecules that modulate the expression of at least five genes common to both BC and AD. Those 49 miRNAs regulate the expression of 122 genes in AD and 93 genes in BC, from which 26 genes are common genes for AD and BC involved in neuron differentiation and genesis, cell differentiation and migration, regulation of cell cycle, and cancer development. Additionally, the highly enriched pathway was associated with diabetic complications, pointing out possible interplay among molecules underlying BC, AD, and diabetes pathology.
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•miRNAs linked with BRCA1/2/PTEN in AD/BC are identified by two approaches.•Targeting miR-107 might be useful for treating AD and BC at the same time.•Targets from identified miRNA subnetworks may have clinical significance in future.
The health benefits of natural products have long been recognized. Consumption of dietary compounds such as supplements provides an alternative source of natural products to those obtained from the ...diet. There is a growing concern regarding the possible side effects of using different food supplements simultaneously, since their possible interactions are less known. For the first time, we have tested genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects of Biochaga, in combination with dihydroquercetin. No genotoxic effect on whole blood cells was observed within individual treatment of Biochaga (250 μg/mL, 500 μg/mL and 1000 μg/mL) and dihydroquercetin (100 μg/mL, 250 μg/mL and 500 μg/mL), nor in combination. Afterwards, antigenotoxic potency of both supplements against hydrogen peroxide- (H2O2-) induced DNA damage to whole blood cells (WBC) was assessed, using the comet assay. Biochaga and dihydroquercetin displayed a strong potential to attenuate H2O2-induced damage on DNA in cells at all tested concentrations, with a statistical significance (p<0.05), whereas Biochaga at the dose of 500 μg/mL in combination with dihydroquercetin 500 μg/mL was most prominent. Biochaga in combination with dihydroquercetin is able to protect genomic material from oxidative damage induced by hydrogen peroxide in vitro.
While Alzheimer disease (AD) is considered a neurodegenerative disorder, the importance of chromosome instability in non-neuronal cells is equally important, not only for shedding light on the ...etiology of the disease, but also for possible diagnostic purposes and monitoring the progress of the disease. Here, we evaluated the frequency of DNA damage and expression of premature centromere division (PCD) in peripheral blood lymphocytes of sporadic AD patients, age-matched and young controls. The results show that in male patients with AD, the frequencies of PCD and DNA damage were significantly greater (88%, p<0.01 and 38%, p<0.05, respectively) than in age-matched control group. AD females had significantly increased frequency of PCD (134%, p<0.01) as well as a higher frequency of DNA damage (37%, p<0.05). Ageing per se, both in males and females, shows significant increase of percentages of PCD (2.3 times, p<0.01 and 2.8 times, p<0.01, respectively) and DNA damage (63%, p<0.01 and 50%, p<0.01, respectively) comparing with young controls. In addition, a strong (R2=0.873, n=6) and significant (p<0.01) correlation between the frequencies of PCD and DNA damage was found in all examined groups. We may conclude that the increases in both parameters evaluated in this study are not only associated with normal ageing processes, but are markedly and significantly intensified in AD pathogenesis. Thus, our data support the view that AD is a generalized systemic disease, at least as for the increased DNA damage and PCD incidence in peripheral blood cells.
The genotoxic and antigenotoxic behavior of the interfacial charge transfer (ICT) complex between nano-sized TiO2 particles and caffeic acid (CA) was studied in in vitro experiments. The formation of ...the ICT complex is indicated by the appearance of absorption in visible-spectral range. The continual variations method indicated bridging coordination between the ligand, caffeic acid, and the surface Ti atoms, while the stability constant of the ICT complex was found to be 1.5?103 mol-1 L. An agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical results, based on the density functional theory, was found. The ICT complex and its components did not display genotoxicity in the broad concentration range 0.4?8.0 mg mL-1 TiO2 at a mole ratio c(TiO2)/c(CA) = 8. On the other hand, post-treatment of damaged DNA by the ICT complex induced antigenotoxic effect at lower concentrations, but at higher concentrations, 5.125?10.250 mg mL-1 ICT, the ICT complex did not show any beneficial effect on H2O2-induced DNA damaged cells. The experimental data were analyzed using the combinatorial method to determine the effect of component interaction on the genotoxic and antigenotoxic behavior of the ICT complex.
Post-mitotic neurons are typically terminally differentiated and in a quiescent status. However, in Alzheimer disease (AD), many neurons display ectopic re-expression of cell cycle-related proteins. ...Cyclin-dependent kinase 11 (CDK11) mRNA produces a 110-kDa protein (CDK11p110) throughout the cell cycle, a 58-kDa protein (CDK11p58) that is specifically translated from an internal ribosome entry site and expressed only in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, and a 46-kDa protein (CDK11p46) that is considered to be apoptosis specific. CDK11 is required for sister chromatid cohesion and the completion of mitosis. In this study, we found that the expression patterns of CDK11 vary such that cytoplasmic CDK11 is increased in AD cellular processes, compared to a pronounced nuclear expression pattern in most controls. We also investigated the effect of amyloid precursor protein (APP) on CDK11 expression in vitro by using M17 cells overexpressing wild-type APP and APP Swedish mutant phenotype and found increased CDK11 expression compared to empty vector. In addition, amyloid-β25–35 resulted in increased CDK11 in M17 cells. These data suggest that CDK11 may play a vital role in cell cycle re-entry in AD neurons in an APP-dependent manner, thus presenting an intriguing novel function of the APP signaling pathway in AD.
Harmful effects of elevated levels of catecholamines are mediated by various mechanisms, including gene transcription and formation of oxidation products. The aim of this study was to see whether the ...molecular mechanisms underlying the damaging action of adrenaline on DNA are mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS). To do that, we exposed human whole blood cells to 10 μmol L
adrenaline or 50 μmol L
(used as positive control) that were separately pre-treated or post-treated with 500 μmol L
of quercetin, a scavenger of free radicals. Quercetin significantly reduced DNA damage in both pre- and post-treatment protocols, which suggests that adrenaline mainly acts via the production of ROS. This mechanism is also supported by gradual lowering of adrenaline and H
-induced DNA damage 15, 30, 45, and 60 min after treatment. Our results clearly show that DNA repair mechanisms are rather effective against ROS-mediated DNA damage induced by adrenaline.
More people die from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than from any other cause. Cardiovascular complications are thought to arise from enhanced levels of free radicals causing impaired “redox ...homeostasis,” which represents the interplay between oxidative stress (OS) and reductive stress (RS). In this review, we compile several experimental research findings that show sustained shifts towards OS will alter the homeostatic redox mechanism to cause cardiovascular complications, as well as findings that show a prolonged antioxidant state or RS can similarly lead to such cardiovascular complications. This experimental evidence is specifically focused on the role of glutathione, the most abundant antioxidant in the heart, in a redox homeostatic mechanism that has been shifted towards OS or RS. This may lead to impairment of cellular signaling mechanisms and elevated pools of proteotoxicity associated with cardiac dysfunction.
Summary Premature centromere division, or premature centromere separation (PCS), occurs when chromatid separation is dysfunctional, occurring earlier than usual during the interphase stage of ...mitosis. This phenomenon, seen in Robert’s syndrome and various cancers, has also been documented in peripheral as well as neuronal cells of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the latter instances, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), applied to the centromere region of the X-chromosome in interphase nuclei of lymphocytes from peripheral blood in AD patients, demonstrated premature chromosomal separation before mitotic metaphase directly after completion of DNA replication in G2 phase of the cell cycle. Furthermore, and perhaps unexpectedly given the presumptive post-mitotic status of terminally differentiated neurons, neurons in AD patients also showed significantly increased levels of PCS of the X-chromosome. Taken together with other phenomena such as cell cycle re-activation and ectopic re-expression of cyclins and cyclin dependent proteins, we propose that AD is an oncogenic phenotype leading to accelarated aging of the affected brain.
More than 30 types of amyloids are linked to close to 50 diseases in humans, the most prominent being Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is brain-related local amyloidosis, while another amyloidosis, such ...as AA amyloidosis, tends to be more systemic. Therefore, we need to know more about the biological entities’ influencing these amyloidosis processes. However, there is currently no support system developed specifically to handle this extraordinarily complex and demanding task. To acquire a systematic view of amyloidosis and how this may be relevant to the brain and other organs, we needed a means to explore "amyloid network systems" that may underly processes that leads to an amyloid-related disease. In this regard, we developed the DES-Amyloidoses knowledgebase (KB) to obtain fast and relevant information regarding the biological network related to amyloid proteins/peptides and amyloid-related diseases. This KB contains information obtained through text and data mining of available scientific literature and other public repositories. The information compiled into the DES-Amyloidoses system based on 19 topic-specific dictionaries resulted in 796,409 associations between terms from these dictionaries. Users can explore this information through various options, including enriched concepts, enriched pairs, and semantic similarity. We show the usefulness of the KB using an example focused on inflammasome-amyloid associations. To our knowledge, this is the only KB dedicated to human amyloid-related diseases derived primarily through literature text mining and complemented by data mining that provides a novel way of exploring information relevant to amyloidoses.