• BMB Reports
• /
• v.47 no.7
• /
• pp.369-375
• /
• 2014

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a pleiotropic bioactive peptide that was first isolated from an ovine hypothalamus in 1989. PACAP belongs to the secretin/glucagon/vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) superfamily. PACAP is widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous systems and acts as a neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, and neurotrophic factor via three major receptors (PAC1, VPAC1, and VPAC2). Recent studies have shown a neuroprotective role of PACAP using in vitro and in vivo models. In this review, we briefly summarize the current findings on the neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects of PACAP in different brain injury models, such as cerebral ischemia, Parkinson's disease (PD), and Alzheimer's disease (AD). This review will provide information for the future development of therapeutic strategies in treatment of these neurodegenerative diseases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.605-614
• /
• 2021

Autophagy is an important degradative pathway that eliminates misfolded proteins and damaged organelles from cells. Autophagy is crucial for neuronal homeostasis and function. A lack of or deficiency in autophagy leads to the accumulation of protein aggregates, which are associated with several neurodegenerative diseases. Compared with non-neuronal cells, neurons exhibit rapid autophagic flux because damaged organelles or protein aggregates cannot be diluted in post-mitotic cells; because of this, these cells exhibit characteristic features of autophagy, such as compartment-specific autophagy, which depends on polarized structures and rapid autophagy flux. In addition, neurons exhibit compartment-specific autophagy, which depends on polarized structures. Neuronal autophagy may have additional physiological roles other than amino acid recycling. In this review, we focus on the characteristics and regulatory factors of neuronal autophagy. We also describe intracellular selective autophagy in neurons and its association with neurodegenerative diseases.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.324-330
• /
• 2009

Autophagy is a bulk lysosomal degradation process important in development, differentiation and cellular homeostasis in multiple organs. Interestingly, neuronal survival is highly dependent on autophagy due to its post-mitotic nature, polarized morphology and active protein trafficking. A growing body of evidence now suggests that alteration or dysfunction of autophagy causes accumulation of abnormal proteins and/or damaged organelles, thereby leading to neurodegenerative disease. Although autophagy generally prevents neuronal cell death, it plays a protective or detrimental role in neurodegenerative disease depending on the environment. In this review, the two sides of autophagy will be discussed in the context of several neurodegenerative diseases.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.204-204
• /
• 2022

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.205-215
• /
• 2017

The brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) is an important imaging biomarker in Alzheimer's disease (AD) as the cerebral atrophy has been shown to strongly associate with cognitive symptoms. The decrease of volume estimates in different structures of the medial temporal lobe related to memory correlates with the decline of cognitive functions in neurodegenerative diseases. During the past decades several methods have been developed for quantifying the disease related atrophy of hippocampus from MRI. Special effort has been dedicated to separate AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) related modifications from normal aging for the purpose of early detection and prediction. We trained a multi-class support vector machine (SVM) with probabilistic outputs on a sample (n = 58) of 20 normal controls (NC), 19 individuals with MCI, and 19 individuals with AD. The model was then applied to the cross-validation of same data set which no labels were known and the predictions. This study presents data on the association between MRI quantitative parameters of hippocampus and its quantitative structural changes examination use on the classification of the diseases.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.324.2-325
• /
• 2002

Recent studies suggest that inflammatory events are implicated in a variety of human diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have beneficial effects in treatment or prevention of these disorders. It has been reported that expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 and nitric oxide synthase and subsequent production of prostaglandin (PG) and nitric oxide (NO). respectively are elevated in many inflammatory disorders. (omitted)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
• /
• 2003.10b
• /
• pp.189-189
• /
• 2003

Recent studies suggest that inflammatory events are implicated in a variety of human diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. It has been reported that expression of inducible cyclooxygenase (COX) and nitric oxide (NO) synthase and subsequent production of prostaglandins (PG)s and NO, respectively are elevated in many inflammatory disorders.(omitted)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
• /
• 2002.11b
• /
• pp.187-187
• /
• 2002

Recent studies suggest that inflammatory events are implicated in a variety of human diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have beneficial effects in treatment or prevention of these disorders.(omitted)

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.243-250
• /
• 2014

Mitochondrial integrity is critical for maintaining proper cellular functions. A key aspect of regulating mitochondrial homeostasis is removing damaged mitochondria through autophagy, a process called mitophagy. Autophagy dysfunction in various disease states can inactivate mitophagy and cause cell death, and defects in mitophagy are becoming increasingly recognized in a wide range of diseases from liver injuries to neurodegenerative diseases. Here we highlight our current knowledge on the mechanisms of mitophagy, and discuss how alterations in mitophagy contribute to disease pathogenesis. We also discuss mitochondrial dynamics and potential interactions between mitochondrial fusion, fission and mitophagy.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.235-245
• /
• 2010

Mitochondria have long been recognized as ATP engines for the cell and recently as a dynamic and mobile organelles that control cell death and life. This exquisite organelle is the site of reactive oxygen species production and is highly vulnerable to exogenous stresses, resulting in catastrophic damage to the cell. Mitochondrial dysfunction is linked to a wide range of age-associated degenerative diseases, such as metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of mitochondria-dependent pathogenesis may provide important strategies to treat these diseases. Indeed, mitochondria are emerging therapeutic targets for the mitochondria-related diseases. In this paper, we review the recent concepts of mitochondrial biology and how mitochondria are involved in age-associated degenerative diseases. Furthermore, we summarize the therapeutics which target to improve mitochondrial functions.