Parkinson’s associated protein DJ-1 regulates intercellular communication via extracellular vesicles in oxidative stress
Thomas Page, Clara Alice Musi, Saskia E. Bakker, David R. Jenkins, Eric J. Hill, Tiziana Borsello, Ivana Milic, Andrew Devitt, Mariaelena Repici
This weeks #FridayRead explores disease mechanisms in an autosomal recessive form of Parkinson’s disease caused by mutations in the DJ-1 protein.
Parkinson’s disease is neurodegenerative disorder effecting the central and peripheral nervous system, it is common and effects 1% of people over 60. Parkinson’s is characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons and accumulation of Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra area of the brain.
DJ-1 protein, encoded by the Park7 gene, is a multifunctional protein which has been shown to have roles in the regulation of apoptosis ad the immune system and also dopamine synthesis and uptake.
This study by Thomas Page from Aston University looks at the role of DJ-1 in extracellular vesicles, which are secreted by brain cells and regulate synaptic function and neural development.
Proteomic analysis of extracellular vesicles from DJ-1 deficient cells showed a distinct protein expression profile. Challenging DJ-1 KO cells with rotenone, a naturally occurring pesticide which induces oxidative stress, showed DJ-1 deficient cells have reduced numbers of extracellular vesicles and increased macrophage migration.
These result indicate DJ-1 regulates the number, cargo and functional effects of extracellular vesicles released from neuronal cells upon oxidative stress, offering new insights into Parkinson’s disease progression and novel therapeutic targets.
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This paper used Qkine growth factors FGF2-G3 (Qk053) for neural precursor cell differentiation and BDNF (Qk050) and GDNF (Qk051) at 20 ng/ml for neural differentiation.
Qkine have developed a protocol for differentiation of iPSC in dopaminergic neurons for the study of neural diseases such as Parkinson’s – Differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into dopaminergic neurons
Our Dopaminergic neuron differentiation kit (Qk517) saves 40% on purchasing the growth factors individually