Molecular Cell Biology & Disease Flashcards

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1
Q

Learning Outcomes

A
  • Outline some of the major causes of molecular diseases.
  • Describe the molecular causes of several example diseases
  • Autophagy
  • Recycling of cellular proteins, etc.
  • Cystic fibrosis (and cholera)
  • a mutation of a transport protein (channelopathy) and in cholera
    transport itself not the problem, but control of the channel is, due to
    disruption of second messenger cascade (in this case cAMP).
  • Muscular Dystrophies
  • Mechanotransduction of motor proteins to the cytoskeleton /
    membrane
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2
Q

Causes of disease

A
  • Genetic mutations due to heredity / radiation / chemical
  • Infectious agents (animals, fungi, bacteria, viruses, prions)
  • Chemical agents (drugs, industry, heavy metals)
  • Direct trauma
  • And these can affect…
  • Structural molecules of cells
  • Enzymes & Biochemical Pathways Cell Signalling/Regulation
  • Cell Membrane Transport
  • Many of the above and more …….
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3
Q

Problems…

A
  • Structural molecular problems
  • Genetic etc.
  • Prions (mad cow’s disease / KJS in humans / Parkinson’s)
  • Chemical denaturation (industrial exposure)
  • Overstimulation (e.g. temporary hearing loss & receptor protein
    change)
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4
Q

Problems…

A
  • Cell membrane transport problems
  • Channelopathies (e.g. congenital deafness, cystic fibrosis, heart
    diseases)
  • Problems with regulation of membrane transport (e.g. diarrhoea,
    cholera)
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4
Q
A

the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine
Yoshinori Ohsumi
“for his discoveries of mechanisms
for autophagy”

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5
Q

Problems…

A
  • Cell signalling problems
  • Neurochemical release & reuptake (e.g. mental illness/drug
    intoxication)
  • Intracellular second messenger problems (e.g. cholera)
  • Hormonal Imbalance (secretion, reception – e.g. gigantism,
    dwarfism)
  • Other problems with pathways for cell signals & reception (e.g.
    cancer)
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5
Q

Problems…

A
  • Enzyme function problems
  • Turning enzymes on via regulatory pathways
  • Turning enzymes off via regulatory pathways
  • Blocking enzymatic pathways
  • Absence of enzymes
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5
Q

Autophagy – “self eating”

A
  • Autophagosomes are transient membranous orgnls
  • They form, then engulf cellular contents, such as damaged proteins
    and organelles.
  • Fuses with the lysosome, where the contents are degraded into
    smaller constituents.
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6
Q

Autophagy – “self eating”

A
  • Lysosomes contain enzymes for digestion of cellular
    contents.
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7
Q

Autophagy – “self eating”

A
  • Clears old/damaged proteins
    and provides the cell with
    nutrients and building blocks
    for renewal.
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8
Q
A
  • Microautophagy:
  • Lysosome itself engulfs small components of the cytoplasm by inward
    invagination of the lysosomal membrane.
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8
Q

A groundbreaking experiment!

A
  • Ohsumi used yeast cells where vacuoles are lysosomes
  • If he could disrupt the degradation process in the vacuole while the
    process of autophagy was active, then autophagosomes should
    accumulate within the vacuole
  • Cultured mutated yeast lacking vacuolar degradation enzymes and
    simultaneously stimulated autophagy (starvation)
  • Ohsumi then studied thousands of yeast mutants and identified 15
    genes that are essential for autophagy
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8
Q
A
  • Macroautophagy (dominant):
  • An isolation membrane (phagophore) sequesters a small portion of the
    cytoplasm, including soluble materials and organelles,
  • Now called an autophagosome → fuses with the lysosome (autolysosome)
  • Degrades materials contained within it.
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9
Q

Mechanisms of Autophagy

A
  • 3 classes: macroautophagy, microautophagy, and chaperonemediated autophagy.
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9
Q
A
  • Chaperone-mediated autophagy.
  • Proteins directly translocate across the lysosomal membrane during
    chaperone-mediated autophagy. The chaperone protein Hsc70 (heat shock
    cognate 70) recognize proteins, Lamp-2A acts as a receptor on the lysosome,
    and unfolded proteins are delivered into the lysosomal lumen through a
    translocation complex.
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10
Q
A
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11
Q
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12
Q

2007

A
  • Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, Oliver Smithies
  • CFTR-/- homozygotes display defective chloride transport in epithelia
    of airways and intestines, failure to thrive, meconium ileus, and
    pathological alterations of gastrointestinal glands.
  • First to create a model of a human disease by gene targeting in mice.
13
Q

Cystic fibrosis → CFTR gene

A
  • Malfunction in the exocrine system
    (saliva, sweat, tears, and mucus)
  • Develop an excessively thick mucus
    within the lungs and GIT
  • Impairs digestive and respiratory
    function, leading to irreversible
    damage (lung failure).
  • Cause? A defect in a Cl-membrane
    transport protein (CFTR gene)
13
Q

CFTR mutation affect function or production

A
  • Class I
  • Defective CFTR protein synthesis
  • Class II
  • Defective post-translational processing &
    trafficking
  • Class III
  • Defective gating
  • Class IV
  • Defective conductance
  • Class VI
  • Reduced protein stability
  • Class V
  • Reduced synthesis (splicing defect →
    nonsense mediated decay
14
Q

Loss of CFTR function manifests cystic fibrosis
pathophysiology

A
15
Q

CFTR gating

A
  • Opening
  • cAMP activates PKA, phosporylates R-domain, allows Cl- to pass out
    down its concentration gradient
  • Closing
  • Protein phosphatases (PPases) remove phosphates from R-domain,
    channel closes
15
Q
A
16
Q

CFTR gating

A
17
Q

Increased activity of CFTR

A
  • Secretatogogues
  • raise cAMP level in gut cells
  • Copious Clsecretion leads to copious water secretion, 10-
    20 L/day, death from dehydration likely
  • Na+
    /glucose co-transporter not affected so oral
    rehydration with sugar and salt solution life-saving
17
Q

Increased activity of CFTR

A
  • cAMP leads to phosphorylation of CFTR, opening Cl- channel
  • Thus, molecules that raise cAMP regulate CFTR
18
Q

CFTR mutations protect us from diarrhoea?

A
19
Q

CTFR mutations – a potential lifesaver?

A
  • Dehydration by enterotoxin-induced secretory diarrhoea is
    the single largest cause of death in the Developing World
  • Suggested that those with one CF allele may have advantage
    with cholera: they are less susceptible to enterotoxininduced diarrhoea
  • Maximal secretion rates lower for CF sufferers & so
    dehydration slower than normal with cholera
  • Study showed Salmonella typhi enter GIT cells via CFTR.
    CFTR mutants internalise fewer bacteria!
20
Q

Dystrophin

A

provides mechanical stability to muscle
cell surface membrane
Links contractile motor proteins to
plasma membrane (sarcolemma)

21
Q

Dystrophin

A

Consequences of loss:
* Increased susceptibility to muscle damage
and necrosis
* Excessive inflammatory response
* Impaired regeneration after damage

22
Q

Dystrophin

A

Imbalance between damage and repair → loss of muscle fibres
and increased fibrosis → decreased functional capacity & death

23
Q
A
24
Q

Duchenne V Becker MDs

A
25
Q

Duchenne V Becker MDs

A
26
Q

Can we fix it?

A
  • Yes, we can! (sort of, some times, and not entirely… )
  • Skip the mutated exon? Short protein, but functional (like Becker MD)
  • Exon-skipping designer oligonucleotide drugs – Eteplirsen
  • Quite literally, this - CTCCAACATCAAGGAAGATGGCATTTCTAG
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31
Q

Summary

A
  • Outline some of the major causes of molecular diseases.
  • Describe the molecular causes of several example diseases
  • Autophagy
  • Protein recycling that is essential to cellular function
  • Cystic fibrosis (and cholera)
  • a mutation of a transport protein (channelopathy) and in cholera transport
    itself not the problem, but control of the channel is, due to disruption of
    second messenger cascade (in this case cAMP).
  • Muscular Dystrophies
  • Mechanotransduction of motor proteins to the cytoskeleton/membrane
32
Q
  • Reading:
A
  • http://www.cftrscience.com
  • http://www.nobelprize.org/