Statin therapy in Alzheimer's disease.

Previous studies have suggested that statin therapy may be of benefit in treating Alzheimer's disease (AD). We initiated a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized (1:1) trial with a 1-year exposure to once-daily atorvastatin calcium (80 mg; two 40 mg tablets) or placebo among individuals with mild-to-moderate AD [Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 12-28]. Stable dose use of cholinesterase inhibitors, estrogen and vitamin E was allowed, as was the use of most other medications in the treatment of co-morbidities. We demonstrated that atorvastatin treatment produced significantly (P = 0.003) improved performance on cognition and memory after 6 months of treatment (ADAS-cog) among patients with mild-to-moderate AD. This superior effect persisted at 1 year (P = 0.055). This positive effect on the ADAS-cog performance after 6 months of treatment was more prominent among individuals entering the trial with higher MMSE scores (P = 0.054). Benefit on other clinical measures was identified in the atorvastatin-treated population compared with placebo. Accordingly, atorvastatin therapy may be of benefit in the treatment of mild-to-moderately affected AD patients, but the level of benefit produced may be predicated on earlier treatment. Evidence also suggests that atorvastatin may slow the progression of mild-to-moderate AD, thereby prolonging the quality of an afflicted individual's life.

Trace copper levels in the drinking water, but not zinc or aluminum influence CNS Alzheimer-like pathology.

Mounting evidence suggests copper may influence the progression of Alzheimer's disease by reducing clearance of the amyloid beta protein (Abeta) from the brain. Previous experiments show that addition of only 0.12 PPM copper (one-tenth the Environmental Protection Agency Human consumption limits) to distilled water was sufficient to precipitate the accumulation of Abeta in the brains of cholesterol-fed rabbits (1). Here we report that addition of copper to the drinking water of spontaneously hypercholesterolemic Watanabe rabbits, cholesterol-fed beagles and rabbits, PS1/APP transgenic mice produced significantly enhanced brain levels of Abeta. In contrast to the effects of copper, we found that aluminum- or zinc-ion-supplemented distilled water did not have a significant effect on brain Ab accumulation in cholesterol-fed rabbits. We also report that administration of distilled water produced a reduction in the expected accumulation of Ab in three separate animal models. Collectively, these data suggest that water quality may have a significant influence on disease progression and Ab neuropathology in AD.

Sensitivity of human cell strains having different abilities to repair O6-methylguanine in DNA to inactivation by alkylating agents including chloroethylnitrosoureas.

In order to investigate the mechanisms of cellular damage by alkylating agents, human fibroblasts and tumor cell strains having different sensitivities to killing by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine [and different abilities to repair O6-methylguanine ( O6mGua ) in their DNA] were treated with other alkylating agents. Methyl methanesulfonate, 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU), 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea, and N-ethyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine gave rise to sensitivity differences, but the differences were less than those observed with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine. After treatment with UV light, the strains showed similar survival. The data show that the DNA repair mechanism(s) responsible for the differential survival of the strains after N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine treatment probably play(s) a role in repairing DNA damage produced by methyl methanesulfonate, N-ethyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, BCNU, and 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-(2-chloroethyl)-3-nitrosourea but not that produced by UV. Furthermore, the results support the idea that a breakdown product of BCNU, that does not cause damage repairable by O6mGua repair mechanisms, contributes to the lethal effects due to BCNU-produced DNA-damage that is repairable by O6mGua repair mechanisms. The survival data, along with nucleoid sedimentation and adenovirus host-cell reactivation data, are consistent with the hypothesis that the lesion(s) lethal to tumor cells defective in O6mGua DNA repair are lesions in which DNA oxygen atoms are alkylated.

Relationship of DNA repair phenotypes of human fibroblast and tumor strains to killing by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine.

Two DNA repair assays were used to group human cells. (a) The first assay, survival of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG)-treated adenovirus infecting cellular monolayers, was previously used to define the Mer phenotype of the strain. Strains that supported the growth of MNNG-treated viruses as well as did human fibroblasts were "Mer+"; those that gave rise to clearly less virus survival were "Mer-." (b) The second assay, data from which are presented in this paper, was that of post-MNNG colony-forming ability, and defined the Rem phenotype of the strain. Strains having post-MNNG colony-forming ability like that of human fibroblasts were "Rem+"; more sensitive strains were "Rem-". In all, 22 human cell strains were analyzed for their post-MNNG colony-forming ability. The most resistant strains (eight Mer+ Rem+ strains) had an average inactivation slope of 0.32 "lethal hit"/microM and were those fully able to repair O6-methylguanine (O6mGua) produced in their DNA by a 5 microM dose of MNNG. The most sensitive strains (9 Mer- Rem- strains) had an average inactivation slope of 7.0 "lethal hits"/microM, and were strains that failed to repair O6mGua. Five strains of intermediate sensitivity (Mer+ Rem-) had an average inactivation slope of 0.93 "lethal hit"/microM and were able to repair some labeled O6mGua produced by a 5 microM dose of labeled MNNG, but they repaired significantly less labeled O6mGua if pretreated with unlabeled MNNG. Representative strains from each group were treated with MNNG and assayed for ability: (a) to perform DNA repair synthesis (and DNA repair replication); (b) to support the growth of MNNG-treated adenoviruses; and (c) to restore control levels of tertiary structure to their DNA as assayed by nucleoid sedimentation. The results support the hypothesis that a lesion (both produced by agents that produce O6mGua and repaired by cell strains that repair O6mGua, but not by those that do not) is a lesion lethal to Mer- Rem- strains. This lesion may also initiate induction of excess DNA repair synthesis, the relaxed conformation of nucleoids, the reduced ability to repair MNNG-treated adenovirus, and sister chromatid exchanges as well.

Mojave toxin affects fusion of myoblasts and viability of myotubes in cell cultures.

Mojave toxin is a neurotoxic, heterodimeric phospholipase isolated from the venom of Crotalus scutulatus scutulatus. Responses of primary rat muscle cell cultures and clonal muscle cell lines to treatment with Mojave toxin and its constituent subunits were examined. Continuous exposure of cells to 0.5 microM or 1.0 microM Mojave toxin or the basic subunit, added 24 hr after plating, prevented fusion of primary myoblasts and C2 myoblasts to multinucleate myotubes. Under the same experimental conditions, some myotube formation was observed when RMo cells were used, but the number and size of the myotubes were reduced substantially compared to untreated controls. The addition of Mojave toxin to established myotubes that arose from differentiation of primary myoblasts or C2 myoblasts essentially led to total disappearance of the myotubes from the cell layer within 48 hr. Myotubes from RMo cells treated in the same manner, however, did not disappear, but they were smaller and less numerous than comparable controls. Similar results were generated by exposure of myotubes to the basic subunit of Mojave toxin under the same conditions. The underlying layer of mononucleate cells was retained in both instances. Toxin-free cultures continued to develop in the usual manner. Treatment with 1.0 microM concentrations of the acidic subunit, pancreatic phospholipase A2 or a non-neurotoxic phospholipase from Naja naja atra gave results indistinguishable from untreated control cultures.

Effects of myotoxin alpha on fusion and contractile activity in myoblast-myotube cell cultures.

Cultured myoblasts and moytubes were used to study the effects of purified myotoxins from rattlesnake venoms. Standard cell culture techniques were used to establish and maintain primary cultures derived from neonatal rat tissue and two clonal cell lines, rat RMo cells and mouse C2 cells. Toxin concentrations, ranging from 0.04 to 1.0 microM, were added to the cultures at various times under distinct, well-defined conditions. Addition of myotoxin alpha to primary myoblast cultures did not appear to affect the fusion process, whereas similar experiments with two clonal cell lines produced larger myotubes when contrasted with untreated control cultures, particularly with RMo cells. The myotubes derived from primary cell cultures twitched spontaneously but the twitching ceased when the medium was replaced with a serum-free chemically defined incubation medium. Addition of myotoxin alpha to the primary myotubes incubated with serum-free defined medium caused the myotubes to twitch again. Derivatives of myotoxin alpha were prepared by reactions with tetranitromethane and with iodoacetic acid, the latter under reducing and non-reducing conditions. The resulting products, purified but not chemically characterized, were nearly devoid of activity when primary cultures were used to test activity.

Differential effects of hydroxyurea on the survival of UV- and MNNG-treated adenovirus 5.

The effects of hydroxyurea on plaque formation by UV-irradiated and MNNG-treated adenovirus 5 were investigated. Hydroxyurea blocked the recovery of UV-irradiated viruses in all cases studied, but the effect was less when fibroblasts from a patient with xeroderma pigmentosum were used. This fact supports the notion that hydroxyurea blocks excision repair of UV-produced damage. The recovery of MNNG-treated viruses was not blocked by hydroxyurea when viruses were used to infect normal human fibroblasts, but was blocked if the cell strain used as viral host were deficient in repair of O6-methylguanine. To account for these data, we propose that hydroxyurea blocks repair in which DNA polymerases play a role, but does not block repair in which DNA polymerases are not required.

Relationship of methyl purines produced by MNNG in adenovirus 5 DNA to viral inactivation in repair-deficient (Mer-) human tumor cell strains.

Adenovirus 5 treated with MNNG (N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine) has greater plaque-forming ability in cell strains having the Mer+ phenotype than in strains having the Mer- phenotype. MNNG-treated Mer- strains repair the N3-methyladenine (N3MeA) but not the O6-methylguanine (O6MeG) produced in their DNA, while MNNG-treated Mer+ strains repair both of these adducts. The fate of N7-methylguanine (another DNA adduct produced by MNNG) is similar in Mer+ and Mer- strains. We show in this paper that 2.3 +/- 0.4 O6MeG and 1.4 N3MeA per adenovirus genome correlate with one lethal hit when the survival assay is done using Mer- strains as viral hosts. We suggest that O6MeG is the lesion lethal to the virus.

[Influence of captopril on hemodynamics of human placenta in vitro]. / Wplyw kaptoprilu na hemodynamike lozyska ludzkiego in vitro.

OBJECTIVES: Captopril, an agiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) is widely used drug in antihypertensive treatment. After maternal therapy with ACEI several adverse effects on fetus and neonate have been described but the patomechanism is not well known. DESIGN: The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of varying Captopril concentrations on the perfusion pressure in fetal vessels in the in vitro placental double-sided perfusion model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human placental cotyledons from term normal pregnancies were perfused with 100 ng/ml and 1000 ng/ml of Captopril. The perfusion pressure in fetal circuit in every 30 minutes of 3-hours experiment was measured. RESULTS: The highest mean perfusion pressure in fetal circuit was observed in placentas perfused with Captopril in the dose of 100 ng/ml, whereas Captopril in the dose of 1000 ng/ml significantly decreased perfusion pressure after 180 minutes of the experiment. CONCLUSION: The decrease in perfusion pressure in fetal vessels after relative high dose of Captopril may indicate its direct or indirect influence on capillaries.

MNNG-pretreatment of a human kidney carcinoma cell strain decreases its ability to repair MNNG-treated adenovirus 5.

When treated with 4-32 micro M N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), monolayers of the A498 human kidney carcinoma cell strain were less able to support plaquing by MNNG-treated adenovirus 5 than were control monolayers that received no MNNG. However, non-treated and MNNG-treated monolayers were equally able to support plaquing by adenovirus that was not treated with MNNG. Both N-ethyl-N'-nitro-N-nitroguanidine and N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (but neither u.v. nor methyl methanesulfonate) treatment of A498 monolayers caused the depressed survival of MNNG-treated adenoviruses, also indicating specificity of phenomenon. When cells infected by MNNG-treated adenovirus were treated with MNNG for 1 h as a function of post-infection time, the MNNG-depressed viral survival, observed early after infection, decreased, and was unobservable 12 h post-infection, suggesting that repair of MNNG-damaged viruses had occurred over that time period.

Hybrids between human tumor cell strains differing in repair of MNNG-produced DNA damage.

Human tumor cell strains with differing responses to MNNG damage in their DNA were treated with precipitates of the plasmids pSV2gpt or pSV2neo . Transfected clones were selected on the basis of the drug resistance which each plasmid confers. Cells with different drug resistances were fused and hybrids were selected in medium requiring the expression of both markers. Hybrids produced by fusion of two different strains hypersensitive to MNNG-produced cytotoxicity and which lack the DNA repair enzyme O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase ( O6MT ) failed to show complementation, suggesting that these strains share a common genetic defect. Hybrids from fusions of each of three strains containing O6MT activity with the same strain lacking O6MT activity were of surprising character. In one case the hybrid had resistance to MNNG-produced cell killing and O6MT activity similar to the parent strain possessing O6MT activity. In a second case, the hybrid had greater resistance to MNNG produced cytotoxicity than either parent strain although the level of O6MT activity was not higher. In a third case, the hybrid had little or no O6MT and as great hypersensitivity to MNNG-produced cytotoxicity as the parent strain lacking O6MT activity. We conclude that the survival of human tumor cell strains after MNNG-produced DNA damage is controlled by several genes. Even individual repair enzymes, like O6MT , are likely to be regulated by the interaction of these genes.

Human tumor cell strains defective in the repair of alkylation damage.

We have previously identified four human astrocytoma cell strains as defective in the repair of N-methyl-N' -nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) damaged adenovirus 5. We now show that two of these strains (the only two tested), in comparison to other tumor strains or normal human skin fibroblasts, are very sensitive to MNNG-produced killing as measured by colony forming ability, but are normally sensitive to ultraviolet light. Further, such repair deficient cells may be cultured from tumors of the colon, lung, skin, and neck. The phenotype of deficient repair of MNNG-treated adenovirus 5 has now been found in a subgroup of 9 of the 39 human tumor strains tested. We propose to call this phenotype the Mer(-) phenotype. None of the 22 strains of normal human skin fibroblasts tested showed deficient repair of MNNG damage. MNNG treatment (80 microM) causes a decrease in semi-conservative DNA synthesis from which Mer(-) tumor cells do not recover, but from which cells capable of normal repair of MNNG damage (Mer(+)) do. Somewhat paradoxically, Mer(-) cells show more MNNG-stimulated DNA synthesis ('repair synthesis') than do Mer(+) cells. Besides being deficient in the repair of MNNG-damaged adenoviruses Mer(-) cells also have difficulty in repairing viruses damaged either by other N-alkyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidines, or by N-methyl- or N-ethyl-N-nitrosoureas.

Defective repair of alkylated DNA by human tumour and SV40-transformed human cell strains.

We have identified a group of 8 (among 39) human tumour cell strains deficient in the ability to support the growth of adenovirus 5 preparations treated with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), but able to support the growth of non-treated adenovirus normally. This deficient behaviour defines the Mer- phenotype. Strains having the Mer- phenotype were found to arise from tumours originating in four different organs. Relative to Mer+ strains, Mer- tumour strains showed greater sensitivity to MNNG-produced killing, greater MNNG-stimulated "DNA repair synthesis and a more rapid MNNG-produced decrease in semi-conservative DNA synthesis. Here we report that (1) Mer- strains are deficient in removing O6-methylguanine (O6-MeG) from their DNA after [Me-14C]MMNG treatment (Table 1); (2) Mer- tumour strains originate from tumours arising in patients having Mer+ normal fibroblasts (Fig. 1a, b); (3) SV40 transformation of (Mer+) human fibroblasts often converts them to Mer- strains (Fig. 1c, d); (4) MNNG produces more sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) in Mer- than in Mer+ cell strains (Fig. 2).