Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Pathophysiology, Management, and Future Perspectives.

Among older adults, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a prevalent disabling condition that begins as subtle visual disturbances and can progress to permanent loss of central vision. In its late neovascular form, AMD is treatable with inhibitors of vascular endothelial growth factor, the key driver of exudative disease. In the atrophic form, treatment remains elusive. This review addresses the natural history of AMD - through early, intermediate, and advanced disease stages - and concentrates on diagnosis and risk stratification, deficiencies of current treatments, and the promising findings of emerging therapies.

(Poly)phenol-digested metabolites modulate alpha-synuclein toxicity by regulating proteostasis.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease associated with the misfolding and aggregation of alpha-synuclein (aSyn). The molecular underpinnings of PD are still obscure, but nutrition may play an important role in the prevention, onset, and disease progression. Dietary (poly)phenols revert and prevent age-related cognitive decline and neurodegeneration in model systems. However, only limited attempts were made to evaluate the impact of digestion on the bioactivities of (poly)phenols and determine their mechanisms of action. This constitutes a challenge for the development of (poly)phenol-based nutritional therapies. Here, we subjected (poly)phenols from Arbutus unedo to in vitro digestion and tested the products in cell models of PD based on the cytotoxicity of aSyn. The (poly)phenol-digested metabolites from A. unedo leaves (LPDMs) effectively counteracted aSyn and H2O2 toxicity in yeast and human cells, improving viability by reducing aSyn aggregation and inducing its clearance. In addition, LPDMs modulated pathways associated with aSyn toxicity, such as oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, mitochondrial impairment, and SIR2 expression. Overall, LPDMs reduced aSyn toxicity, enhanced the efficiency of ER-associated protein degradation by the proteasome and autophagy, and reduced oxidative stress. In total, our study opens novel avenues for the exploitation of (poly)phenols in nutrition and health.

The effects of the novel A53E alpha-synuclein mutation on its oligomerization and aggregation.

α-synuclein (aSyn) is associated with both sporadic and familial forms of Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. In particular, multiplications and point mutations in the gene encoding for aSyn cause familial forms of PD. Moreover, the accumulation of aSyn in Lewy Bodies and Lewy neurites in disorders such as PD, dementia with Lewy bodies, or multiple system atrophy, suggests aSyn misfolding and aggregation plays an important role in these disorders, collectively known as synucleinopathies. The exact function of aSyn remains unclear, but it is known to be associated with vesicles and membranes, and to have an impact on important cellular functions such as intracellular trafficking and protein degradation systems, leading to cellular pathologies that can be readily studied in cell-based models. Thus, understanding the molecular effects of aSyn point mutations may provide important insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying disease onset.We investigated the effect of the recently identified A53E aSyn mutation. Combining in vitro studies with studies in cell models, we found that this mutation reduces aSyn aggregation and increases proteasome activity, altering normal proteostasis.We observed that, in our experimental paradigms, the A53E mutation affects specific steps of the aggregation process of aSyn and different cellular processes, providing novel ideas about the molecular mechanisms involved in synucleinopathies.

(Poly)phenols protect from α-synuclein toxicity by reducing oxidative stress and promoting autophagy.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common movement neurodegenerative disorder and is associated with the aggregation of α-synuclein (αSyn) and oxidative stress, hallmarks of the disease. Although the precise molecular events underlying αSyn aggregation are still unclear, oxidative stress is known to contribute to this process. Therefore, agents that either prevent oxidative stress or inhibit αSyn toxicity are expected to constitute potential drug leads for PD. Both pre-clinical and clinical studies provided evidence that (poly)phenols, pure or in extracts, might protect against neurodegenerative disorders associated with oxidative stress in the brain. In this study, we analyzed, for the first time, a (poly)phenol-enriched fraction (PEF) from leaves of Corema album, and used in vitro and cellular models to evaluate its effects on αSyn toxicity and aggregation. Interestingly, the PEF promoted the formation of non-toxic αSyn species in vitro, and inhibited its toxicity and aggregation in cells, by promoting the autophagic flux and reducing oxidative stress. Thus, C. album (poly)phenols appear as promising cytoprotective compounds, modulating central events in the pathogenesis of PD, such as αSyn aggregation and the impairment of autophagy. Ultimately, the understanding of the molecular effects of (poly)phenols will open novel opportunities for the exploitation of their beneficial effects and for drug development.

PLK2 modulates α-synuclein aggregation in yeast and mammalian cells.

Phosphorylation of α-synuclein (aSyn) on serine 129 is one of the major post-translation modifications found in Lewy bodies, the typical pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease. Here, we found that both PLK2 and PLK3 phosphorylate aSyn on serine 129 in yeast. However, only PLK2 increased aSyn cytotoxicity and the percentage of cells presenting cytoplasmic foci. Consistently, in mammalian cells, PLK2 induced aSyn phosphorylation on serine 129 and induced an increase in the size of the inclusions. Our study supports a role for PLK2 in the generation of aSyn inclusions by a mechanism that does not depend directly on serine 129 phosphorylation.

Adaptive response to the antimalarial drug artesunate in yeast involves Pdr1p/Pdr3p-mediated transcriptional activation of the resistance determinants TPO1 and PDR5.

The expression of the transcription regulator Pdr1p and its target genes PDR5 and TPO1 is required for Saccharomyces cerevisiae adaptation and resistance to artesunate, a promising antimalarial drug, also active against tumour cells and viruses. PDR5 and TPO1 encode plasma membrane multidrug transporters of the ATP-binding cassette and the major facilitator superfamilies, respectively. The transcriptional activation of TPO1 (10-fold) and PDR5 (13-fold) was registered after 30 min of exposure of the unadapted yeast population to acute artesunate-induced stress, being significantly reduced in the absence of Pdr1p and abolished in the absence of Pdr1p and Pdr3p. Maximum TPO1 mRNA levels were rapidly reduced to basal values following adaptation of the yeast population to artesunate, while high PDR5 levels were maintained during drug-stressed exponential growth.

The yeast multidrug transporter Qdr3 (Ybr043c): localization and role as a determinant of resistance to quinidine, barban, cisplatin, and bleomycin.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae ORF YBR043c, predicted to code for a transporter of the major facilitator superfamily required for multiple drug resistance, encodes a plasma membrane protein that confers resistance to quinidine and barban, as observed before for its close homologues QDR1 and QDR2. This ORF was, thus, named the QDR3 gene. The increased expression of QDR3, or QDR2, also leads to increased resistance to the anticancer agents cisplatin and bleomycin. However, no evidence for increased QDR3 expression in yeast cells exposed to all these inhibitory compounds was found. Transport assays support the concept that Qdr3 is involved, even if opportunistically, in the active export of quinidine out of yeast cell. A correlation was established between the efficiency of quinidine active export mediated by Qdr3p, Qdr2p or Qdr1p, and the efficacy of the expression of the encoding genes in alleviating the deleterious action of quinidine, as well as of the other compounds (QDR2>QDR3>>>QDR1).

The multidrug resistance transporters of the major facilitator superfamily, 6 years after disclosure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome sequence.

The emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR) plays a crucial role in the failure of treatments of tumors and infectious diseases and in the control of plant pathogens, weeds and food-poisoning and food-spoilage microorganisms. Among the mechanisms underlying the MDR phenomenon in various organisms is the action of transmembrane transport proteins that presumably catalyse the active expulsion of structurally and functionally unrelated cytotoxic compounds out of the cell or their intracellular partitioning. On the basis of the complete genome sequence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, numerous established and putative multidrug transporters were identified in this non-pathogenic, easy to manipulate eukaryotic model system. In yeast, the putative drug:H(+)-antiporters belong to the major facilitator superfamily; they comprise at least 23 proteins that have largely escaped characterisation by classical approaches. Other MDR determinants are membrane transporters belonging to the ATP binding cassette (ABC) superfamily, that utilize the energy of ATP hydrolysis for activity, and factors for transcriptional regulation of all the MDR transporters. This work reviews the current status of knowledge on the poorly characterized H(+)-antiporters, with 12 and 14 predicted spans, DHA12 and DHA14, drug efflux families. Consideration is given to the inventory and phylogenetic characterization, role as MDR determinants, regulation of gene expression, subcellular localisation and activity as solute transporters. Most of the present knowledge on these putative drug:H(+)-antiporters was driven by disclosure of S. cerevisiae genome sequence, in April 1996, being a paradigm of post-genomic research.