Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that is a serious problem for immuno-compromised patients. Toxins such as exoenzyme (Exo) S, ExoT, ExoY and ExoU are secreted and translocated from the bacteria into the eukaryotic cell via the bacterial encoded type III secretion system. Our research focuses on ExoS, a bifunctional toxin comprising a Rho-GTPase-activating protein domain (RhoGAP) and a 14-3-3 dependent ADP-ribosyltransferase domain. In addition, ExoS contains a membrane localization domain termed MLD. In this study, cell lines expressing activated forms of various components of the Ras signaling pathway have been used to understand the functional and mechanical activation of ExoS-ADP-ribosyltransferase activity and to reveal its cellular targets in the cell. Our observations suggested that Ras GTPase is the dominant target by which ExoS mediates cell death and activated Ras is able to protect cells against cell death, regardless of whether it has been ADP-ribosylated by ExoS. It has been reported that the 14-3-3 cofactor protein is required for ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of ExoS and a phosphorylation-independent interaction occurs between 14-3-3 and the C-terminal part of ExoS. We have undertaken a deeper analysis including structural and biological investigation of this interaction. Our results suggested that leucine-428 of ExoS is the most critical residue for ExoS enzymatic activity. Structural analysis showed that ExoS binds to 14-3-3 in a novel binding mode mostly relying on hydrophobic contacts. Our structure was supported by biochemical and cytotoxicity analyses, which revealed that the substitution of important residues of ExoS significantly weakens the ability of ExoS to modify endogenous targets such as RAS/RAP1 and to induce cell death. Further, mutation of key residues within the ExoS binding site for 14-3-3 impairs virulence in a mouse pneumonia model. Leucine residues-422, 423, 426, and 428 of ExoS are important for the interaction with the ″roof″ of the amphiphatic groove of 14-3-3. In conclusion, we show the mechanism of cell signal transduction pathways affected upon ExoS infection and also demonstrate that the hydrophobic residues of ExoS in 14-3-3 interaction motif have a significant role for ExoS enzymatic activity.

Injury severs the axons in the spinal cord causing permanent functional loss. After injury, a series of events occur around the lesion site, including the deposition of growth cone inhibitory astroglial scar tissue containing chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (CSPG)- rich regions. It is important to encourage axons to extend through these inhibitory regions for regeneration to occur. The work presented in this dissertation investigates the effect of three proteins, constitutively active (CA)-Cdc42, CA-Rac1, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on axonal outgrowth through CSPGs-rich inhibitory regions after spinal cord injury (SCI). Cdc42 and Rac1 are members of the Rho GTPase family and BDNF is a member of the neurotrophin sub-family. These three proteins affect the actin cytoskeleton dynamics. Therefore, Cdc42, Rac1, and BDNF promote axonal outgrowth. The effect of CA-Cdc42 and CA-Rac1 on neurite extension through CSPG regions was determined in an in vitro model. Rac1 and Cdc42 s ability to modulate CSPG-dependent inhibition has yet to be explored. In this study, a stripe assay was utilized to examine the effects of modulating all three Rho GTPases on neurite extension across inhibitory CSPG lanes. Alternating laminin (LN) and CSPG lanes were created and NG108-15 cells and E9 chick dorsal root ganglions (DRGs), were cultured on the lanes. Using the protein delivery agent Chariot, the neuronal response to exposure of CA and dominant negative (DN) Rho GTPases, along with the bacterial toxin C3, was determined by quantifying the percent ratio of neurites crossing the CSPG lanes. CA-Cdc42, CA-Rac1, and C3 transferase significantly increased the number of neurites crossing into the CSPG lanes compared to the negative controls for both the NG108-15 cells and the E9 chick DRGs. We also show that these mutant proteins require the delivery vehicle, Chariot, to enter the neurons and affect neurite extension. Therefore, activation of Cdc42 and Rac helps overcome the CSPG-dependent inhibition of neurite extension. In an in vivo study, CA-Cdc42 and CA-Rac1 were locally delivered into a spinal cord cavity. Additionally, BDNF was delivered to the lesion site, either individually or in combination with either CA-Cdc42 or CA-Rac1. The dorsal over-hemisection model was utilized, creating a ~2mm defect that was filled with an in situ gelling hydrogel scaffold containing lipid microtubules loaded with the protein(s) to encourage axons. The lipid microtubules enable slow release of proteins while the hydrogel serves to localize them to the lesion site and permit axonal growth. The results from this study demonstrate that groups treated with BDNF, CA-Cdc42, CA-Rac1, BDNF/CA-Cdc42, and BDNF/CA-Rac1 had significantly higher percentage of axons from the corticospinal tract (CST) that traversed the CSPG-inhibitory regions, as well as penetrate the glial scar compared to the untreated and agarose controls. Although axons from the CST tract did not infiltrate the scaffold-filled lesion, NF-160+ axons were observed in the scaffold. Treatment with BDNF, CA-Cdc42, and CA-Rac1 also reduced the inflammatory response, quantified by analyzing GFAP and CS-56 intensity for reactive astrocytes and CSPGs, respectively, at the interface of the scaffold and host tissue. Therefore, the local delivery of CA-Cdc42, CA-Rac1 and BDNF, individual and combination demonstrated the ability of axons to extend through CSPG inhibitory regions, as well as reduce the glial scar components.

La p21-activated kinase 3 (PAK3) code pour une sérine/thréonine kinase dont la mutation est responsable de retard mental non syndromique. Les kinases PAK sont activées par les GTPases Rac1 et Cdc42 et régulent la plasticité neuronale en agissant sur le cytosquelette d'actine. Afin de comprendre le rôle spécifique de PAK3 dans les processus cognitifs, nous avons étudié les mutations responsables de retard mental et caractérisé des nouveaux variants d'épissage. Ainsi, nous avons montré: 1) que PAK3 est activé préférentiellement par Cdc42 ; 2) que deux mutations suppriment totalement l'activité kinase et entraînent de fortes anomalies de morphologie des épines dendritiques de neurones d'hippocampe ; 3) qu'une autre mutation diminue fortement la liaison de la kinase à la GTPase Cdc42 et induit une forte réduction de la densité des épines. Ces résultats montrent que le module Cdc42/PAK3 joue un rôle clé dans la formation des épines dendritiques et la plasticité synaptique. Par ailleurs, nous avons identifié deux nouveaux variants d'épissage de PAK3 qui sont constitutivement actifs. Nous proposons un nouveau modèle de régulation de leur activité kinase, basé sur la formation d'hétérodimères.

No description available.

Statins are widely used to treat hypercholesterolemia. Statins inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis, thereby activating genes involved in cholesterol homeostasis, which are under the control of the Sterol Regulatory Element (SRE). Statins also have cholesterol-independent beneficial cardiovascular effects mediated through the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K) / Akt signaling pathway and by inhibition of protein prenylation. Because statins inhibit the synthesis of isoprenoids, they can act by inhibiting the small signaling GTPases Ras and Rho, which require post-translational prenylation to become membrane-anchored and functional. We showed that simvastatin-mediated inhibition of protein prenylation does not appear to play a role in activation of SRE transcriptional activity in HepG2 cells. We also found that when isoprenoids were replenished, basal phospho-Akt decreased, suggesting that inhibition of prenylation by simvastatin mediates Akt phosphorylation. Future studies will be needed to investigate the role that inhibition of protein prenylation plays in the activation of the PI3-K/Akt pathway by simvastatin. / Department of Biology

Access to abstract permanently restricted. / Aldol condensation to synthesize substituted chalcones -- Synthesis and testing of substituted 4,5-dihydropyrazoles -- Biological testing of synthesized 4,5-dihydropyrazoles. / Access to thesis permanently restricted. / Department of Chemistry

Thèse (Ph. D.)--Université Laval, 2007. / Bibliogr.: f. [156]-175. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

Thèse (Ph. D.)--Université Laval, 2009. / Bibliogr.: f. 146-173. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2006 September 20

<p>It has long been appreciated that the process of learning might invoke a physical change in the brain, establishing a lasting trace of experience. Recent evidence has revealed that this change manifests, at least in part, by the formation of new connections between neurons, as well as the modification of preexisting ones. This so-called structural plasticity of neural circuits – their ability to physically change in response to experience – has remained fixed as a primary point of focus in the field of neuroscience. </p><p>A large portion of this effort has been directed towards the study of dendritic spines, small protrusions emanating from neuronal dendrites that constitute the majority of recipient sites of excitatory neuronal connections. The unique, mushroom-like morphology of these tiny structures has earned them considerable attention, with even the earliest observers suggesting that their unique shape affords important functional advantages that would not be possible if synapses were to directly contact dendrites. Importantly, dendritic spines can be formed, eliminated, or structurally modified in response to both neural activity as well as learning, suggesting that their organization reflects the experience of the neural network. As such, elucidating how these structures undergo such rearrangements is of critical importance to understanding both learning and memory. </p><p>As dendritic spines are principally composed of the cytoskeletal protein actin, their formation, elimination, and modification requires biochemical signaling networks that can remodel the actin cytoskeleton. As a result, significant effort has been placed into identifying and characterizing such signaling networks and how they are controlled during synaptic activity and learning. Such efforts have highlighted Rho family GTPases – binary signaling proteins central in controlling the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton – as attractive targets for understanding how the structural modification of spines might be controlled by synaptic activity. While much has been revealed regarding the importance of the Rho GTPases for these processes, the specific spatial and temporal features of their signals that impart such structural changes remains unclear. </p><p>The central hypotheses of the following research dissertation are as follows: first, that synaptic activity rapidly initiates Rho GTPase signaling within single dendritic spines, serving as the core mechanism of dendritic spine structural plasticity. Next, that each of the Rho GTPases subsequently expresses a spatially distinct pattern of activation, with some signals remaining highly localized, and some becoming diffuse across a region of the nearby dendrite. The diffusive signals modify the plasticity induction threshold of nearby dendritic spines, and the spatially restricted signals serve to keep the expression of plasticity specific to those spines that receive synaptic input. This combination of differentially spatially regulated signals thus equips the neuronal dendrite with the ability to perform local biochemical computations, potentially establishing an organizational preference for the arrangement of dendritic spines along a dendrite. Finally, the consequences of the differential signal patterns also help to explain several seemingly disparate properties of one of the primary upstream activators of these proteins: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). </p><p>The first section of this dissertation describes the characterization of the activity patterns of one of the Rho family GTPases, Rac1. Using a novel Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)- based biosensor in combination with two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (2pFLIM) and single-spine stimulation by two-photon glutamate uncaging, the activation profile and kinetics of Rac1 during synaptic stimulation were characterized. These experiments revealed that Rac1 conveys signals to both activated spines as well as nearby, unstimulated spines that are in close proximity to the target spine. Despite the diffusion of this structural signal, however, the structural modification associated with synaptic stimulation remained restricted to the stimulated spine. Thus, Rac1 activation is not sufficient to enlarge spines, but nonetheless likely confers some heretofore-unknown function to nearby synapses. </p><p>The next set of experiments set out to detail the upstream molecular mechanisms controlling Rac1 activation. First, it was found that Rac1 activation during sLTP depends on calcium through NMDA receptors and subsequent activation of CaMKII, suggesting that Rac1 activation in this context agrees with substantial evidence linking NMDAR-CaMKII signaling to LTP in the hippocampus. Next, in light of recent evidence linking structural plasticity to another potential upstream signaling complex, BDNF-TrkB, we explored the possibility that BDNF-TrkB signaling functioned in structural plasticity via Rac1 activation. To this end, we first explored the release kinetics of BDNF and the activation kinetics of TrkB using novel biosensors in conjunction with 2p glutamate uncaging. It was found that release of BDNF from single dendritic spines during sLTP induction activates TrkB on that same spine in an autocrine manner, and that this autocrine system was necessary for both sLTP and Rac1 activation. It was also found that BDNF-TrkB signaling controls the activity of another Rho GTPase, Cdc42, suggesting that this autocrine loop conveys both synapse-specific signals (through Cdc42) and heterosynaptic signals (through Rac1). </p><p>The next set of experiments detail one the potential consequences of heterosynaptic Rac1 signaling. The spread of Rac1 activity out of the stimulated spine was found to be necessary for lowering the plasticity threshold at nearby spines, a process known as synaptic crosstalk. This was also true for the Rho family GTPase, RhoA, which shows a similar diffusive activity pattern. Conversely, the activity of Cdc42, a Rho GTPase protein whose activity is highly restricted to stimulated spines, was required only for input-specific plasticity induction. Thus, the spreading of a subset of Rho GTPase signaling into nearby spines modifies the plasticity induction threshold of these spines, increasing the likelihood that synaptic activity at these sites will induce structural plasticity. Importantly, these data suggest that the autocrine BDNF-TrkB loop described above simultaneously exerts control over both homo- and heterosynaptic structural plasticity. </p><p>The final set of experiments reveals that the spreading of GTPase activity from stimulated spines helps to overcome the high activation thresholds of these proteins to facilitate nearby plasticity. Both Rac1 and RhoA, the activity of which spread into nearby spines, showed high activation thresholds, making weak stimuli incapable of activating them. Thus, signal spreading from a strongly stimulated spine can lower the plasticity threshold at nearby spines in part by supplementing the activation of high-threshold Rho GTPases at these sites. In contrast, the highly compartmentalized Rho GTPase Cdc42 showed a very low activation threshold, and thus did not require signal spreading to achieve high levels of activity to even a weak stimulus. As a result, synaptic crosstalk elicits cooperativity of nearby synaptic events by first priming a local region of the dendrite with several (but not all) of the factors required for structural plasticity, which then allows even weak inputs to achieve plasticity by means of localized Cdc42 activation. </p><p>Taken together, these data reveal a molecular pattern whereby BDNF-dependent structural plasticity can simultaneously maintain input-specificity while also relaying heterosynaptic signals along a local stretch of dendrite via coordination of differential spatial signaling profiles of the Rho GTPase proteins. The combination of this division of spatial signaling patterns and different activation thresholds reveals a unique heterosynaptic coincidence detection mechanism that allows for cooperative expression of structural plasticity when spines are close together, which in turn provides a putative mechanism for how neurons arrange structural modifications during learning.</p> / Dissertation