Posts tagged cytoplasm

Living cells are like miniature factories, responsible for the production of more than 25,000 different proteins with very specific 3-D shapes. And just as an overwhelmed assembly line can begin making mistakes, a stressed cell can end up producing misshapen proteins that are unfolded or misfolded.

(Image caption: A color-enhanced electron micrograph shows the nucleus of a cell (blue) adjacent to the rough endoplasmic reticulum (green), where proteins are manufactured from mRNA templates produced by the nucleus. Credit: University of Edinburgh, via the Wellcome TrustAdd)

Now Duke University researchers in North Carolina and Singapore have shown that the cell recognizes the buildup of these misfolded proteins and responds by reshuffling its workload, much like a stressed out employee might temporarily move papers from an overflowing inbox into a junk drawer. 

The study, which appears Sept. 11, 2014 in Cell, could lend insight into diseases that result from misfolded proteins piling up, such as Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and type 2 diabetes.

“We have identified an entirely new mechanism for how the cell responds to stress,” said Christopher V. Nicchitta, Ph.D., a professor of cell biology at Duke University School of Medicine. “Essentially, the cell remodels the organization of its protein production machinery in order to compartmentalize the tasks at hand.” 

The general architecture and workflow of these cellular factories has been understood for decades. First, DNA’s master blueprint, which is locked tightly in the nucleus of each cell, is transcribed into messenger RNA or mRNA. Then this working copy travels to the ribosomes standing on the surface of a larger accordion-shaped structure called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The ribosomes on the ER are tiny assembly lines that translate the mRNAs into proteins.

When a cell gets stressed, either by overheating or starvation, its proteins no longer fold properly. These unfolded proteins can set off an alarm — called the unfolded protein response or UPR – to slow down the assembly line and clean up the improperly folded products. Nicchitta wondered if the stress response might also employ other tactics to deal with the problem.

In this study, Nicchitta and his colleagues treated tissue culture cells with a stress-inducing agent called thapsigargin. They then separated the cells into two groups — those containing mRNAs associated with ribosomes on the endoplasmic reticulum, and those containing mRNAs associated with free-floating ribosomes in the neighboring fluid-filled space known as the cytosol. 

The researchers found that when the cells were stressed, they quickly moved mRNAs from the endoplasmic reticulum to the cytosol. Once the stress was resolved, the mRNAs went back to their spots on the production floor of the endoplasmic reticulum. 

“You can slow down protein production, but sometimes slowing down the workflow is not enough,” Nicchitta said. “You can activate genes to help chew up the misfolded proteins, but sometimes they are accumulating too quickly. Here we have discovered a mechanism that does one better — it effectively puts everything on hold. Once things get back to normal, the mRNAs are released from the holding pattern.” 

Interestingly, the researchers found that shuttling ribosomes between the ER and the cytoplasm during stress only affected the subset of mRNAs that would give rise to secreted proteins like hormones or membrane proteins like growth factor receptors — the types of proteins that set off the stress response if they’re misfolded. They aren’t sure yet what this means.

Nicchitta is currently searching for the factors that ultimately determine which mechanisms cells employ during the stress response. He has already pinpointed one promising candidate, and is looking to see how cells respond to stress when that factor is manipulated.

(Source: today.duke.edu)

Rapamycin, a drug used to prevent rejection in transplants, could delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. This is the main conclusion of a study published in the Nature in which has collaborated the researcher Isidro Ferrer, head of the group of Neuropathology at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Bellvitge University Hospital and Full Professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Barcelona. The research was led by researchers from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste (Italy).

The collaboration of the research group led by Dr. Ferrer with SISSA researchers began five years ago when they observed that Parkinson’s patients showed a deficit in UCHL1 protein. At that time, researchers didn’t know what mechanism produced this deficit. To discover it a European project was launched. It was coordinated by the Italian researchers and participated by other European research groups, including the group led by Dr. Ferrer. The project, called Dopaminet, focused on how dopaminergic neurons (brain cells whose neurotransmitter is dopamine) are involved in Parkinson’s disease.

Contrary to most common hypothesis that a DNA fragment encodes a protein through a messenger RNA molecule, the researchers found that it also works in reverse. They found a balance between the protein and its mirror protein, which is configured in reverse, and they are mutually controlled. If the protein mirror is located in the nucleus of the cell, it does not interact with the protein, while if it is in the cytoplasm, then both of them interact.

In the case of Parkinson’s disease the protein UCHL1 appears reduced and also its mirror protein is localized in the nucleus, and in the cytoplasm. Thus, the researchers sought a method to extract the mirror protein from the nucleus and made it interact with the original UCHL1 protein. The authors found that rapamycin was able to extract them from the nucleus. The drug allows the two proteins, the UCHL1 and its mirror, hold together in the cytoplasm, which would correct the mistakes that occur in Parkinson’s disease.

This in vitro research has allowed describing a new unknown mechanism. It is necessary that the UCHL1 mirror protein should accumulate in the nucleus and escape from the cytoplasm and join the UCLH1 protein. The combination of both makes the system work.

"The rapamycin can not cure Parkinson’s disease, but it may delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s itself. Rapamycin can protect and delay the beginning of these diseases. It can complete the treatment, but it should be combined with other existing treatments", explains Isidro Ferrer.

Anyway, it is still far its application in patients. The next step is to validate these results in animal models and study the effects of rapamycin in combination with other drugs.

(Source: idibell.cat)