Signal Transduction in Neuronal Death
Abstract
Abstract: Apoptosis in the nervous system is a necessary event during the development of the nervous system and is also present after genotoxic events, be they chronic as in aging or more acute after trauma and ischemia. Apoptotic events reflect an interplay between intrinsic signaling events that rely on cytokines, neurotransmitters, and growth factors and responses to extrinsic events that increase levels of radical oxygen species. Both intrinsically and extrinsically driven signal-transduction pathways act via transcription factors that regulate the coordinated timely expression of stress-response genes as part of a decision-making process that can commit cells to apoptosis or survival. Here we discuss the role of two transcription factors that participate in apoptosis in the nervous system: the activator protein AP-1 and nuclear factor κB.
Abbreviations used: AD, Alzheimer's disease; AP-1, activator protein-1; BFCN, basal forebrain cholinergic neuron; ERK, extracellular-regulated kinase; GSH, glutathione; JNK, c-Jun N-terminal kinase; MAPK, mitogen-activated protein kinase; NAC, N-acetylcysteine; NFκB, nuclear factor κB; NGF, nerve growth factor; NT, neurotrophin; PDTC, pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate, an antioxidant that blocks NFκB activation; PSI, carbobenzoxy-Ile-Glu(o-tert-butyl)-Ala-leucinal, a specific proteasome inhibitor peptide that blocks NFκB activation through selective inhibition of IκB-α degradation; ROS, reactive oxygen species.
