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The impact of mutant huntingtin on oxidative stress in primary fibroblasts isolated from a new Huntington's disease knock in porcine model
Sekáč, Dávid ; Ellederová, Zdeňka (advisor) ; Hanzlíková, Hana (referee)
Huntington's chorea is a dominantly inherited disease caused by trinucleotide (Cytosine-Adenine -Guanine) expansion in a gene coding huntingtin protein. Carriers of these mutation show symptoms associated with motor impairment, a cognitive and psychiatric disturbance, which is called Huntington's disease (HD). The major sign of HD is striatal atrophy in the middle age of life. Since it is known that huntingtin protein participates in a lot of cellular processes, such as transcriptional regulation and metabolism, these processes change by its mutation. One of the features observed in HD pathogenesis is the presence of oxidative stress. The aim of the work was to monitor the molecular changes preceding the HD manifestation in the knock-in minipig model. As a material for monitoring molecular changes leading to this condition, primary fibroblasts were used. Whereas, the oxidative stress arises from an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants, level of reactive species and lipid peroxidation together with expression of antioxidant response associated genes was measured. At the same time, expression of metabolic and DNA repair related genes was monitored. Although the differences in oxidative stress level or the expression of antioxidative response genes were not detected, the changes in the...
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Characterization of the effect of human mutated huntingtin on the neuronal stem cell differentiation.
Budková, Kateřina ; Vodičková, Kateřina (advisor) ; Romanyuk, Natalyia (referee)
Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by an expansion of the CAG codon repeat in the huntingtin gene (HTT). This expansion causes a change in the biochemical properties of the huntingtin protein (HTT), its aggregation and cellular toxicity, which leads to the degeneration of brain neurons, especially in the striatum. Induced pluripotent cells (iPSC) derived directly from HD patient cells can serve as a model system for in vitro modeling of this disease. Because neuronal dysfunctions occur in HD patients years before the first clinical symptoms manifest, this model system may help elucidate the mechanisms that precede the onset of the disease. The aim of this thesis was to differentiate iPSCs (derived from fibroblasts of HD patients and healthy controls) into neural stem cells (NSCs) and subsequently into neuronal cell populations and to monitor molecular changes in their differentiation associated with the effect of mutated HTT. The differentiation process was monitored based on selected markers using immunofluorescence, western blot and qRT-PCR. We were able to generate stable NSC lines derived from 3 control and 3 HD iPSC lines. All 6 NSC lines were able to further differentiate into neural populations. At the transcriptional level, we found a higher...
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The role of neuroinflammation in neurodegenerative CNS disease processes
Červenák, Karol ; Novotný, Jiří (advisor) ; Spišská, Veronika (referee)
Inflammatory processes in the CNS are an important element in neuroimmunity. They may be beneficial and have a neuroprotective effect but depending on the extent and duration of their activation they may also have a negative effect on the function of the CNS. Neuroinflammation is characterized by the activation of resident immune cells, microglia and astrocytes, activation of inflammatory signal pathways, recruitment of immune cells from the blood and their penetration through the blood-brain barrier. Chronic neuroinflammation may cause neurodegeneration and is key in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Neurodegeneration is irreversible but it can be mitigated. Therapeutic methods aimed at the modulation of neuroinflammation present a promising option for slowing down or stopping neurodegeneration for people with diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or Huntington's disease. The aim of this thesis is to sum up information about inflammatory processes in the brain and our current knowledge about their role in the pathogenesis of some neurodegenerative diseases. Key words: Inflammation, microglia, neurodegeneration, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, CNS
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DNA damage response in Huntington disease
Vachová, Veronika ; Šolc, Petr (advisor) ; Roth, Jan (referee)
Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, which leads to loss of striatal neurons in basal ganglias. It is characterized by involuntary movements and progressive cognitive impairment. HD is a relatively rare disease and the prevalence is approximately 0,01 % of the population of Western European. HD is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene (HTT). This mutation results in an elongated stretch of glutamin. Mutant huntingtin (mHTT) expression leads to accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) due to reduced ability of effective reparation, which contributes to the pathogenesis of HD, however this mechanism is not fully understood. There are several angles of view how mHTT impaires DNA damage response (DDR). Some studies say that the expression of the mHTT initiates excessive activation of the DDR including p53 signaling pathway leading to apoptosis. Other studies represent results for dysfunction of non-homologous end joining after recognition of DSB or that the cell is not able to recognize DSB. All theories would explain cell death as a consequence of high level of unrepaired DNA damage. The understanding of these mechanisms is important for the development of therapeutical strategies. Key words: Huntington's disease, huntingtin, DNA...
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Pathogenesis of Huntington's disease in peripheral tissues
Vachútová, Dominika ; Motlík, Jan (advisor) ; Fiala, Ondřej (referee)
Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant inherited disorder with manifest of symptoms around the age of 40. This disorder is caused by an expansion of CAG repeats in huntingtin gene, Huntingtin (Htt) is a protein expressed in almost all tissues. HD is mainly characterized by neurodegeneration in the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex, but mutation in huntingtin have also serious influence on peripheral tissues. Many studies show serious heart dysfunction, weight loss, altered glucose homeostasis, impairment of energetic metabolism and muscular atrophy in HD patients and animal models. Till now, mechanism of these changes has not been sufficiently described and there is nor an adequate treatment yet. Key words: Huntington's disease, mutated huntingtin, CAG repeat, peripheral tissue
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The Role of the Occupational Therapist in the Treatment of Patients with Huntington's Disease
Sýkorová, Jitka ; Čábelková, Alžběta (advisor) ; Dlouhá Maršálková, Alexandra (referee)
The Role of the Occupational Therapist in the Treatment of Patients with Huntington's Disease Abstract: This thesis is focused on the possible potential of occupational therapy in patients with Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative brain disease. Currently, Huntington's disease is incurable, but there are some therapeutic methods and approaches which have positive influence on a progress of the disease. Also, early intervention of occupational therapy is needed and the occupational therapist is an irreplaceable specialist as a part of an interdisciplinary team. However, in the Czech Republic there is a little experience with occupational therapy in patients with Huntington's disease. The thesis consists of a theoretical part and a practical part. The theoretical part provides basic information about the condition and by having used specialized foreign literature it also focuses on the opportunities and goals of occupational therapy in patients with Huntington's disease. In the practical part, questionnaires which were distributed among patients and patient care providers were evaluated. Results of the questionnaires provide besides other things a brief outline of patient's problematic areas. Occupational therapy evaluation of patients with Huntington's disease includes the Montreal Cognitive Assessment...
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Huntington's disease modeling and stem cell therapy in spinal cord disorders and injury
Hruška-Plocháň, Marián ; Motlík, Jan (advisor) ; Bjarkam, Carsten (referee) ; Roth, Jan (referee)
Neurological disorders affect more than 14% of the population worldwide and together with traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries represent major health, public and economic burden of the society. Incidence of inherited and idiopathic neurodegenerative disorders and acute CNS injuries is growing globally while neuroscience society is being challenged by numerous unanswered questions. Therefore, research of the CNS disorders is essential. Since animal models of the CNS diseases and injuries represent the key step in the conversion of the basic research to the clinics, we focused our work on generation of new animal models and on their use in pre-clinical research. We generated and characterized transgenic minipig model of Huntington's disease (HD) which represents the only successful establishment of a transgenic model of HD in minipig which should be valuable for testing of long term safety of HD therapeutics. Next, we crossed the well characterized R6/2 mouse HD model with the gad mouse model which lacks the expression of UCHL1 which led to results that support the theory of "protective" role of mutant huntingtin aggregates and suggest that UCHL1 function(s) may be affected in HD disturbing certain branches of Ubiquitin Proteasome System. Traumatic spinal cord injury and Amyotrophic Lateral...
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Monitoring of the development of the Huntington's disease in transgenic minipigs with N-terminal part of human mutated huntingtin: biochemical and motoric changes of F0, F1 and F2 generation
Kučerová, Šárka ; Ellederová, Zdeňka (advisor) ; Klempíř, Jiří (referee)
Huntington's disease (HD) belongs to neurodegenerative disorders. It is a monogenic disease caused by trinucleotic CAG expansion in exon 1 of gene coding protein huntingtin. Even though the cause of HD is known since 1993, the pathophysiology and cure for HD reminds to be found. The animal models are being used for better understanding of HD. The most common animal models for HD are rodents, especially mice but it was also important to create large animal models, which will be more like human. Therefore, TgHD minipig was created in Academic of Science in Liběchov in 2009. This model was created by microinjection of lentiviral vector carrying N-terminal part of human HTT with 124 repetitive CAG in exon 1. This model is viable and in every generation, is part of the offspring transgenic. In this thesis, I specialized to biochemical and behavioral changes of this model. I compared transgenic and wild type siblings. I found that biochemical changes are manifested mostly by increased level of mtHtt fragments in testes and brain. In behavioral part of this thesis I established new methods for testing behavioral changes in this model. The introduced methods showed some changes between wild type and transgenic animals at the tested ages but these changes were not significant due to the low number of...
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Interplay between mutated huntingtin and precancerogenous status in mammalian cells.
Butalová, Nikola ; Baxa, Monika (advisor) ; Koudelková, Lenka (referee)
Huntington's disease is a serious hereditary disorder that causes mortification of neurons. The disease affects individuals around the age of 40. Its characteristics are involuntary movement of the limbs and a progressive dementia. This disorder is currently without any treatment and always ends with patient dying within a period of 15 years after the first symptoms are discovered. Special relation between Huntington's disease and malign neoplasia was observed at the end of the 20th century. This relation shows lower degree of cancer among the patients with this neurodegenerative disorder compared to the general population. An expanded sequence of a CAG section probably protects these persons against advancement of cancer. Creation of an applicable experimental model with characteristic highly resembling human body was necessary for superior research of this disease. This model can be represented by a transgene mini pig carrying a mutated protein huntingtin - tgHD pig. Another model of a mini-pig showing hereditary occurrence of malign lesions - MeLiM pig was created to research cancer. These two specific lines of mini-pigs were crossbred resulting in not only piglets with melanoma and transgene piglets with mtHTT but also transgene piglets having melanoma at the same time. Furthermore the same...
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Testicular Degeneration of Transgenic Porcine Model of Huntington's Disease
Skřivánková, Monika ; Motlík, Jan (advisor) ; Roth, Jan (referee) ; Petr, Jaroslav (referee)
Huntington's disease is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by an extended (≥36) CAG repeat in the huntingtin gene. Its hallmark is brain athrophy, but huntingtin is widely deposited in all tissues of the body, most notably in the brain and testes. Its pathogenic effect is conditioned by the formation of cytotoxic forms of aggregates and fragments, which occur in both brain and peripheral tissues. Testicular atrophy has been demonstrated in postmortem samples from human patients with Huntington's disease and in transgenic mouse models. We investigated reproductive decline in a large animal model of Huntington's disease. A transgenic (tgHD) minipig model was created by inserting a lentiviral vector into the genome of a pig. Vector contained a truncated form of the N terminal part of huntingtin gene. Boars of this transgenic line showed a reduced ability to produce offspring from 13 months of age. We confirmed apoptosis of seminiferous epithelial cells and Sertoli cells, and a production of morphologically damaged spermatozoa, which were unable to efficiently fertilize the oocyte under in vitro conditions. We found a reduction of mitochondrial metabolism parameters in the sperm of tgHD boars. These changes were not dependent on the age of the boars., It is directly related to the...
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