Suchergebnisse

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a severe and progressive neuronal loss leading to cognitive dysfunctions. Previous reports, based on the use of chemical inhibitors, have connected the stress kinase p38α to neuroinflammation, neuronal death and synaptic dysfunction. To explore the specific role of neuronal p38α signalling in the appearance of pathological symptoms, we have generated mice that combine expression of the 5XFAD transgenes to induce AD symptoms with the downregulation of p38α only in neurons (5XFAD/p38α-N). We found that the neuronal-specific deletion of p38α improves the memory loss and long-term potentiation impairment induced by 5XFAD transgenes. Furthermore, 5XFAD/p38α-N mice display reduced amyloid-β accumulation, improved neurogenesis, and important changes in brain cytokine expression compared with 5XFAD mice. Our results implicate neuronal p38α signalling in the synaptic plasticity dysfunction and memory impairment observed in 5XFAD mice, by regulating both amyloid-β deposition in the brain and the relay of this accumulation to mount an inflammatory response, which leads to the cognitive deficits. ; Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO). S.C. was partly supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/Marie Curie Actions/COFUND). IRB Barcelona is the recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from MINECO (Government of Spain) ; Peer Reviewed

The androgen receptor is a transcription factor that plays a key role in the development of prostate cancer, and its interactions with general transcription regulators are therefore of potential therapeutic interest. The mechanistic basis of these interactions is poorly understood due to the intrinsically disordered nature of the transactivation domain of the androgen receptor and the generally transient nature of the protein-protein interactions that trigger transcription. Here, we identify a motif of the transactivation domain that contributes to transcriptional activity by recruiting the C-terminal domain of subunit 1 of the general transcription regulator TFIIF. These findings provide molecular insights into the regulation of androgen receptor function and suggest strategies for treating castration-resistant prostate cancer. ; This work was supported by IRB, ICREA (X.S.), Obra Social "la Caixa" (E.D.M., E.S., and X.S.), MINECO (BIO2012-31043 and BIO2015-70092-R to X.S., BIO2014-53095-P to G.D.F.), Marató de TV3 (102030 to X.S. and 102031 to E.E.-P), the COFUND program of the European Commission (C.D.S.), the European Research Council (CONCERT, contract number 648201 to X.S.), the Ramón y Cajal program of MICINN (RYC-2011-07873 to C.W.B.), the Serra Hunter Program (E.E.-P.), AGAUR (SGR-2014-56RR14 to E.E.-P), and FEDER (G.D.F.). I.H. was supported by funding from the Chief Scientist's Office of the Scottish Government (ETM-258, ETM-382). IRB Barcelona is the recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from MINECO (Government of Spain).