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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Elucidating The Consequence And Cause Of Microrna Dysregulation In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als), Zachary C. E. Hawley Oct 2020

Elucidating The Consequence And Cause Of Microrna Dysregulation In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als), Zachary C. E. Hawley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive motor neurodegenerative disorder with an average life expectancy of 2-5 years post-diagnosis. Common pathological features associated with ALS are the formation of cytoplasmic inclusions of intermediate filaments and RNA-binding proteins within motor neurons. The formation of intermediate filament cytoplasmic inclusions is believed to be driven by a loss of stochiometric expression between five neuronal intermediate filament proteins—NFL, NFM, NFH, INA and PRPH—where there is a selective suppression of the steady-state levels of NEFL, INA and PRPH mRNA. Further, three RNA-binding proteins—TDP-43, FUS and RGNEF—have been shown to co-aggregate with each other in …


Dnajc7, A Molecular Chaperone Protein That Modulates Protein Misfolding In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als), Meaghan Kathleen Stoltz Sep 2020

Dnajc7, A Molecular Chaperone Protein That Modulates Protein Misfolding In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als), Meaghan Kathleen Stoltz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with protein misfolding and dysregulated cellular protein quality control mechanisms. Molecular chaperones, and heat shock proteins (Hsp), are key players in maintaining cellular protein quality control. DNAJC7 is an understudied cytosolic Hsp40 that works together with Hsp70 and Hsp90 to regulate proper protein folding or degradation. Of note, mutations in the gene encoding DNAJC7 were discovered to cause familial ALS. We asked whether ALS-associated mutations in DNAJC7 compromise its function as a chaperone, which may cause the toxic accumulation of misfolded proteins. This study attempts to uncover the functions of DNAJC7 …


The Role Of The Leucine-Rich (Leur) Domain Of Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor (Rgnef) In The Regulation Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als) Associated Protein Tar Dna-Binding Protein Of 43 Kda (Tdp-43), Hind Amzil Aug 2020

The Role Of The Leucine-Rich (Leur) Domain Of Rho Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor (Rgnef) In The Regulation Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Als) Associated Protein Tar Dna-Binding Protein Of 43 Kda (Tdp-43), Hind Amzil

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The presence of neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions (NCIs) composed of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and neurofilaments is considered to be ALS’s neuropathological hallmark. RGNEF has been previously shown to interact with TDP-43 and to have a regulatory effect on the expression levels of NEFL mRNA and NFL protein in vitro. Here, I examined the mechanism of the RGNEF N-terminus, leucine-rich domain (LeuR) domain’s interaction with TDP-43. I observed that the minimal domain required is 110 amino acids (LeuR110), that the Ankyrin domain adjacent to LeuR110 does not participate, and that LeuR110 forms of a high molecular weight complex with TDP-43 in …


The Effect Of Nitric Oxide On Microglia Function And Activity: Implications On Transient Receptor Potential Channels, Matthew J-E. Maksoud Aug 2020

The Effect Of Nitric Oxide On Microglia Function And Activity: Implications On Transient Receptor Potential Channels, Matthew J-E. Maksoud

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Microglia proliferation and phagocytosis is critical for proper development and maintenance of the central nervous system (CNS), whereas dysregulated proliferation and phagocytosis contributes to various CNS pathologies. Specifically, in response to pathology or tissue injury, microglia transform to an activated state characterized by elevated inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression, increased nitric oxide (NO) production, active phagocytosis, and decreased proliferation. Importantly, microglial phagocytosis and proliferation are tightly regulated by intracellular calcium levels. As non-excitable cells, microglia rely on calcium entry through transient receptor potential (TRP) channels to carry out phagocytosis and proliferation. However, the role of iNOS/NO signaling in regulating …


Mushroom Body-Specific Gene Regulation By The Swi/Snf Chromatin Remodeling Complex, Kevin Cj Nixon Feb 2020

Mushroom Body-Specific Gene Regulation By The Swi/Snf Chromatin Remodeling Complex, Kevin Cj Nixon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the lifetime of an organism, neurons must establish, remodel, and maintain precise connections in order to form neural circuits that are required for proper nervous system functioning. Disruptions in these processes can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders such as intellectual disability (ID) and autism spectrum disorder. Mutations in genes encoding subunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex have been implicated in ID, yet the role of this complex in neurons is poorly understood. In this project, I established cell-type specific methods to examine the effect of SWI/SNF subunit knockdowns on gene transcription and chromatin structure in the memory-forming neurons of …


Behavioural And Molecular Consequences Of Postnatal Stress In A Mouse Model Of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Bonnie Alberry Jan 2020

Behavioural And Molecular Consequences Of Postnatal Stress In A Mouse Model Of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Bonnie Alberry

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are caused by prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and affect 1‑5% of the North American population. Children born with FASD often face maternal separation throughout childhood. How this early life stress (ELS) affects the severity of FASD-related deficits is poorly understood. Using a mouse model, this dissertation establishes that behavioural deficits accumulate following prenatal alcohol exposure and early life stress, assessed using tests for activity, anxiety-like behaviour as well as learning and memory. Hippocampal gene expression was evaluated using RNA-seq followed by clustering of expression profiles through weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). A set of …