Genetic impairment of succinate metabolism disrupts bioenergetic sensing in adrenal neuroendocrine cancer

Metabolic dysfunction mutations can impair energy sensing and cause cancer. Loss of function of the mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle enzyme subunit succinate dehydrogenase B (SDHB) results in various forms of cancer typified by pheochromocytoma (PC). Here we delineate a signaling cascade where the loss of SDHB induces the Warburg effect, triggers dysregulation of [Ca2+]i, and aberrantly activates calpain and protein kinase Cdk5, through conversion of its cofactor from p35 to p25. Consequently, aberrant Cdk5 initiates a phospho-signaling cascade where GSK3 inhibition inactivates energy sensing by AMP kinase through dephosphorylation of the AMP kinase γ subunit, PRKAG2. Overexpression of p25-GFP in mouse adrenal chromaffin cells also elicits this phosphorylation signaling and causes PC. A potent Cdk5 inhibitor, MRT3-007, reverses this phospho-cascade, invoking a senescence-like phenotype. This therapeutic approach halted tumor progression in vivo. Thus, we reveal an important mechanistic feature of metabolic sensing and demonstrate that its dysregulation underlies tumor progression in PC and likely other cancers

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy of a Mouse Model of Niemann Pick Type C1 Disease

Niemann Pick Type C (NPC) disease is a rare genetic disease which is most often diagnosed in children, causes tragic irreversible neurologic deterioration, and is universally fatal. Many therapies and treatments are in development and would benefit from improved methods of assessing disease progression and treatment response. A large amount of NPC research is carried out in animal models such as the Npc1^(-/-) mouse model of the most common type of NPC disease, NPC1. This dissertation investigates three methods of noninvasive assessments of disease state in the Npc1^(-/-) mouse model with the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS).MRI and MRS provide safe and widely available methods of measuring and visualizing internal tissue characteristics, suitable for longitudinal studies of disease progression and response to therapy. In this work, disease-associated dysmyelination of white matter tracts in the brain of Npc1^(-/-) mice was quantitatively measured at multiple time points with MRI methods of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and T2-mapping. These quantitative in vivo measures of disease status show promise as biomarkers for use in future studies of disease progression and treatment response in NPC disease models. High resolution MRI data was also collected and analyzed at multiple time points to quantify differences in both global and regional brain volumes in the Npc1^(-/-) mice as brain atrophy develops with disease progression. MRS was utilized to quantitatively examine changes in brain metabolite levels previously reported in clinical NPC disease studies. The results of the MRI and MRS studies in the Npc1^(-/-) mouse model demonstrate the ability to quantify changes in the brain due to neurodegeneration at multiple time points along the progression of neurological Npc1^(-/-) disease. MRI methods of quantifying white matter pathology with currently available DTI and T2-mapping techniques appear to be promising in vivo biomarkers of disease in the brain for future studies, while quantification of volumetric changes due to brain atrophy currently shows changes only at later disease stages. In vivo MRS with currently available methodology provides insight into the neurodegenerative disease pathology in the Npc1^(-/-) mouse but appears to lack sensitivity as a biomarker

High resolution hemodynamic profiling of murine arteriovenous fistula using magnetic resonance imaging and computational fluid dynamics

Abstract Background Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) maturation failure remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. The two major etiologies of AVF maturation failure are early neointimal hyperplasia development and persistent inadequate outward remodeling. Although hemodynamic changes following AVF creation may impact AVF remodeling and contribute to neointimal hyperplasia development and impaired outward remodeling, detailed AVF hemodynamics are not yet fully known. Since murine AVF models are valuable tools for investigating the pathophysiology of AVF maturation failure, there is a need for a new approach that allows the hemodynamic characterization of murine AVF at high resolutions. Methods This methods paper presents a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method that we developed to rigorously quantify the evolving hemodynamic environment in murine AVF. The lumen geometry of the entire murine AVF was reconstructed from high resolution, non-contrast 2D T2-weighted fast spin echo MRI sequence, and the flow rates of the AVF inflow and outflow were extracted from a gradient echo velocity mapping sequence. Using these MRI-obtained lumen geometry and inflow information, CFD modeling was performed and used to calculate blood flow velocity and hemodynamic factors at high resolutions (on the order of 0.5 μm spatially and 0.1 ms temporally) throughout the entire AVF lumen. We investigated both the wall properties (including wall shear stress (WSS), wall shear stress spatial gradient, and oscillatory shear index (OSI)) and the volumetric properties (including vorticity, helicity, and Q-criterion). Results Our results demonstrate increases in AVF flow velocity, WSS, spatial WSS gradient, and OSI within 3 weeks post-AVF creation when compared to pre-surgery. We also observed post-operative increases in flow disturbances and vortices, as indicated by increased vorticity, helicity, and Q-criterion. Conclusions This novel protocol will enable us to undertake future mechanistic studies to delineate the relationship between hemodynamics and AVF development and characterize biological mechanisms that regulate local hemodynamic factors in transgenic murine AVF models

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of brain atrophy in a mouse model of Niemann-Pick type C disease

In vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to investigate regional and global brain atrophy in the neurodegenerative Niemann Pick Type C1 (NPC1) disease mouse model. Imaging experiments were conducted with the most commonly studied mouse model of NPC1 disease at early and late disease states. High-resolution in vivo images were acquired at early and late stages of the disease and analyzed with atlas-based registration to obtain measurements of twenty brain region volumes. A two-way ANOVA analysis indicated eighteen of these regions were different due to genotype and thirteen showed a significant interaction with age and genotype. The ability to measure in vivo neurodegeneration evidenced by brain atrophy adds to the ability to monitor disease progression and treatment response in the mouse model.NIH NIBIB [R01EB000343]Open access journal.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Niemann-pick c1 mice, a model of "juvenile alzheimer's disease", with normal gene expression in neurons and fibrillary astrocytes show long term survival and delayed neurodegeneration

Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC) disease, also known as "juvenile Alzheimer's disease", is a disease in which alterations in intracellular cholesterol trafficking occur. The contribution of various CNS cell types to the neurodegeneration has been of much interest. We have previously shown that expression of the normal gene only in fibrillary astrocytes could extend survival of Npc1-/- mice over 3-fold (Zhang et al., 2008 [13]). We have now studied expression only in neurons or in both neurons and fibrillary astrocytes. Neuron-only expression resulted in survivals of over a year (>5-fold) but motor symptoms started at about 6 months. As reflected in weight gain, this especially affected females who weighed less than wild-type starting at about 10 weeks while male differences in weight are delayed. Expression in both cell types led to a nearly normal phenotype with motor symptoms developing at about ten months and increased survival times. Purkinje cell loss was slowed, but severe, in both NSE-and NSE-GFAP-Npc1, transgenic Npc1-/- mice. MRI studies showed that myelination of the long tracts was significantly improved in NSE-Npc1 transgenics, perhaps less than in GFAP-Npc1 transgenics, and not differently than in the double transgenics. Memory was improved in both single and double transgenics. Somatic disease had not been ameliorated and lungs were massively infiltrated with foamy macrophages at 10 months. Our results suggest that neuron-only expression does not completely prevent neurodegeneration and that the addition of astrocyte expression decreases the rate/degree of decline. © 2012 - IOS Press and the authors

Example 9 week WT mouse images illustrating processing steps for volumetry analysis.

<p>Orthogonal views of the example T2-weighted in vivo dataset are shown in panel <i>a</i>. The images after semi-automated segmentation to remove signal from non-brain material are shown in panel <i>b</i>. The bias field estimate due to surface coil sensitivity inhomogeneity obtained from N4ITK software is shown in panel <i>c</i>. Panel <i>d</i> is the processed 3D dataset ready for image registration and analysis.</p

Brain region volume^*, effects and interactions in 3 and 9 week old Npc1^-/- and control mice.

<p>Brain region volume^{<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0178179#t001fn001" target="_blank">*</a>}, effects and interactions in 3 and 9 week old Npc1^-/- and control mice.</p