Browsing by Subject "β-amyloid"

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative brain disease and it is the leading cause of dementia worldwide. However, there are not any medical treatments available to slow down or cure the disease. The typical microscopic changes in Alzheimer patients' brain are extracellular amyloid deposits and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. Serine/threonine kinases are protein kinases that take part in the regulation of cellular functions. At least protein kinase C (PKC), glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3), cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) and Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) are involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. There are currently molecules in development that either activate or inhibit these protein kinases in order to stop the progression of the disease. PKC is an interesting kinase considering this project. It has been shown that PKC activation prevents the formation of amyloid deposits and protects neurons from premature death. This could slow down or prevent the progression of the disease. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dialkyl 5-(hydroxy-methyl)isophthalates (HMI-1a3 and HMI-1b11) on SH-SY5Y-neuroblastoma cell proliferation and morphology with live cell imaging and to Alzheimer's disease-related Wnt, ERK1/2 and PKC signaling pathways with Western blotting. The main purpose was to evaluate the potential of the compounds for further in vitro and in vivo experiments. According to the results of this study both isophthalates, HMI-1a3 and HMI-1b11, had good binding affinities to PKCα and PKCδ. Both of them caused a dramatic increase in ERK1/2 phosphorylation which may be due to PKC activation and may thus suggest a PKC-dependent mechanism of action. However, the possible PKC activation did not cause downregulation of the PKC-isoforms α, β and δ. In addition, both HMI-1a3 and HMI-1b11 inhibited SH-SY5Y cell proliferation. HMI-1a3 was cytotoxic at 20 µM, while HMI-1b11 did not cause any cell death. Both compounds also induced neurite outgrowth. In addition, HMI-1a3 increased the amount of β-catenin. That could indicate the activation of Wnt-signaling, which is inhibited in Alzheimer's disease. Both of the compounds have potential for further studies because of the good binding to PKC and the beneficial effects on neurite outgrowth and Wnt signaling.