Roles of PI3K/AKT/PTEN pathway in the pathogenesis of parkinson’s disease and the neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantianigra caused by severe neuro-degeneration, which is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease.Parkinson's disease has a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity including depression. The neuropsychiatric symptoms are common in Parkinson's disease and may precede onset of motor symptoms. Increasing interest is often addressed to the selective targeting of some of metabotropic glutamate receptors that inhibit the transmitter release at synapses in the basal ganglia. The metabotropic glutamate receptors may be coupled to the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), AKT, and PTEN pathways, whichplay a central role in cell survival. A better understanding of the molecular connections in the PI3K pathways could uncover new targets for drug development in Parkinson's disease.

Ethanol extract of rosemary repressed pten expression in K562 culture cells.

Several medicinal herbs are found to have a potent transcriptional activity for the gene involved in cellular function. In the present study, we aimed to determine the effects of such herbs on PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10) gene, which is a candidate gene involved in cancer development. The in vitro effect of a Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) extract on the reduction of PTEN expression was confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In addition, western blotting also confirmed the down-regulation of the protein at dose dependent manner of the Rosemary extract. Our results show that component(s) of Rosemary inhibits the expression of PTEN in K562 myeloid cell line cells.

Genistein diminished CIZ1 expression in daudi lymphoid cells.

Cip-interacting zinc finger protein 1 (Ciz1), stimulates DNA replication and has been implicated in tumorigenesis of breast cancer cells. In order to investigate the possibility of using medicinal isoflavone agaist breast cancer, we studied whether some isoflavones could affect the expression of the Ciz1. The in vitro effect of isoflavone treatment on the reduction of Ciz1 expression was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Western blotting also confirmed the down-regulation of the protein at dose dependent manner of the genistein treatment in Daudi lymphoid cell line cells.