JCI table of contents: Oct. 19, 2009
EDITOR'S PICK: The protein APC slows Lou Gehrig's disease in mice
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive weakness, disability, and death. Treatments are largely palliative. Using mice carrying the mutated form of the human SOD1 gene that causes inherited forms of ALS, however, Berislav Zlokovic and colleagues, at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, have now found that administration of the protein APC slows disease progression and extends survival. The authors therefore suggest that strategies designed to activate APC might be of benefit to patients with inherited, and possibly sporadic, ALS. However, in an accompanying commentary, Charles Esmon and Jonathan Glass warn that such an approach would not be without risks.
In the study, administration of both APC, whose main function is to prevent blood clotting, and APC analogs with a reduced ability to prevent blood clotting slowed disease progression in the mutant SOD1-expressing mice and extended their survival, even when the compounds were administered after disease onset. Further analysis indicated that these compounds were able to access the brain and that once there, they worked by decreasing expression of the mutant SOD1 in several cell types in the brain, including the nerve cells destroyed in individuals with ALS. This study therefore indicates that APC can have a neuroprotective effect in mouse models of inherited ALS.
TITLE: Activated protein C therapy slows ALS-like disease in mice by transcriptionally inhibiting SOD1 in motor neurons and microglia cells
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Berislav V. Zlokovic
University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, USA.
Phone: (585) 273-3132; Fax: (585) 273-3133; E-mail: berislav_zlokovic@urmc.rochester.edu.
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/38476?key=6a5479a67edd727312aa
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: The APCs of neuroprotection
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Charles T. Esmon
Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.
Phone: (405) 271-6474; Fax: (405) 271-2872; E-mail: Charles-Esmon@omrf.org.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=40682
VASCULAR BIOLOGY: Too much of the protein building block homocysteine inhibits blood vessel formation
TITLE: Homocysteine inhibits neoangiogenesis in mice through blockade of annexin A2-dependent fibrinolysis
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Katherine A. Hajjar
Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA.
Phone: (212) 746-2034; Fax: (212) 746-8809; E-mail: khajjar@med.cornell.edu.
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/39591?key=5eb08d461852e7429305
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Homocysteine-mediated thrombosis and angiostasis in vascular pathobiology
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Joseph Loscalzo
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Phone: (617) 732-6340; Fax: (617) 732-6439; E-mail: jloscalzo@partners.org.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=40924
ONCOLOGY: Loss of the protein Smad4 associated with head and neck cancer
TITLE: Smad4 loss in mice causes spontaneous head and neck cancer with increased genomic instability and inflammation
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Shi-Long Lu
University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
Phone: (303) 724-0784; Fax: (303) 724-4553; E-mail: shi-long.lu@ucdenver.edu.
Xiao-Jing Wang
University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
Phone: (303) 724-3001; Fax: (303) 724-4730; E-mail: xj.wang@ucdenver.edu.
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/38854?key=fc4a2214d5fa7fb45183
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE: Smad4: gatekeeper gene in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Murray Korc
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA.
Phone: (603) 650-7936; Fax: (603) 650-6122; E-mail: murray.korc@dartmouth.edu.
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=41230
NEPHROLOGY: ARH: another link in the molecular chain regulating potassium levels
TITLE: The ARH adaptor protein regulates endocytosis of the ROMK potassium secretory channel in mouse kidney
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Paul A. Welling
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Phone: (410) 706-3851; Fax: (410) 706-8341; E-mail: pwelling@umaryland.edu.
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37950?key=eba726374c485034e543
Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation
