Neuronal Death and Dysfunction Flashcards
What percentage of neurons will die due to not finding an innervation target?
30-50%
What are reasons neurons can die?
- lack of target innervations and survival signal input
- trauma and injury
- neurodegenerative diseases
What are the consequences of neuronal dysfunction?
- axonal degeneration
- programmed cell death of the neuron soma
- oligodendrocytic apoptosis and demyelination
- astroglial activation and scar formation
- synaptic changes
What do astrocytes do?
provide neurons with energetic intermediates
Why does the CNS never come into contact with the PNS?
due to the autographic blood-brain barrier
What can injury to the spinal cord result in?
paralysis from the site of injury downwards
What are the cell shape changes of apoptosis and necrosis respectively?
- apoptosis = cell shrinkage
- necrosis = cell swelling and lysis
What are the ogranelle changes of apoptosis and necrosis respectively?
- apoptosis = involution and contraction
- necrosis = swelling and disruption
What are the nuclear changes of apoptosis and necrosis respectively?
- apoptosis = chromatin condensation and fragmentation
- necrosis = karyolysis, pyknosis
What happens when cells die from necrosis?
the plasma membrane is ruptured and immune cells cluster around the injury site due to chemoattractants
What is necrosis?
non-programmed cell death
What is apoptosis mediated by?
the activation of a protease cascade
Give examples of apoptotic stimulus
- radiation
- physical injury
- anticancer drugs
What is the apoptosome?
a multimolecular holoenzyme complex assembled around the adaptor protein Apaf1
When is the apoptosome assembled?
upon mitochondria-mediated apoptosis stimulated by some type of stress signal
What is the apoptosome in drosophila and mice respectively?
- drosophila = dark/dronk
- mice = Apaf1/caspase-9
What are caspases?
cysteine proteases that cleave after aspartic acids
What are the 3 components that lead to apoptosis?
- apoptotic stimulus
- apoptosome
- apoptosis executioner
How is caspase-3 activated?
- caspase-9 cleaves aspartate 28 and 175 to produce pro-domain, p12 and p17
- p17 and p12 come together to form a dimer of dimers (tetramer) which is the active caspase-3
What are the 5 steps of the general intrinsic apoptotic pathway?
- fas ligand binds to fas and forms aggregates that attract scaffold proteins that activate caspase-8
- activated caspase 8 cleaves protein Bid to produce tBid
- Bax and Bak bind to the outer mitochondrial membrane and punch a hole in it to increase its permeability
- cytochrome C (death signal) is released and binds to Apaf-1 and attracts the binding of procaspase-9
- this then activates caspase-3/7 (depending on tissue type) and the execution is cut in thousands of places to induce cell death
What is the BCL-2 protein family characterised by?
BCL-2 homology domains and interactions with each other
What activates the general intrinsic apoptotic pathway?
many toxins and DNA damaging agents
Where do the intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic general pathways converge?
at the mitochondria
What do IAPs do?
inhibit activation of caspase-9
What inhibits IAPs?
Smac/Diablo
What 4 factors do mitochondria release that lead to apoptosis and what do they do?
- cytochrome C - apoptosome activation
- Smac/Diablo - inhibits IAPs
- AIF - regulates mitochondrial permeability
- endonuclease G - translocates into nucleus and causes DNA fragmentation