Elevated Serum Xanthine Oxidase and Its Correlation with Antioxidant Status in Patients with Parkinson's Disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder associated with a loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra. The diagnosis of PD is sensitive since it shows clinical features that are common with other neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, most symptoms arise at the late stage of the disease, where most dopaminergic neurons are already damaged. Several studies reported that oxidative stress is a key modulator in the development of PD. This condition occurs due to excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in the cellular system and the incapability of antioxidants to neutralize it. In this study, we focused on the pathology of PD by measuring serum xanthine oxidase (XO) activity, which is an enzyme that generates ROS. Interestingly, the serum XO activity of patients with PD was markedly upregulated compared to patients with other neurological diseases (ONDs) as a control. Moreover, serum XO activity in patients with PD showed a significant correlation with the disease severity based on the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages. The investigation of antioxidant status also revealed that serum uric acid levels were significantly lower in the severe group (HY ≥ 3) than in the ONDs group. Together, these results suggest that XO activity may contribute to the development of PD and might potentially be a biomarker for determining disease severity in patients with PD.

Temozolomide Induces Endocytosis of EGFRvIII via p38-Mediated Non-canonical Phosphorylation in Glioblastoma Cells.

The ligand-induced internalization of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is generally considered to attenuate downstream signaling via its endosomal degradation. However, the endocytosis of an oncogenic EGFR variant III (EGFRvIII) is impaired, which leads to persistent signaling from the cell surface, thereby promoting the proliferation and survival of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells. Cellular stress triggers the non-canonical endocytosis-recycling of EGFR by p38-mediated phosphorylation. In the present study, we used temozolomide (TMZ), the standard chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of GBM patients, to examine whether EGFRvIII is controlled by a non-canonical mechanism. TMZ triggered the endocytic trafficking of serine phosphorylated EGFRvIII. Moreover, phosphorylation and endocytosis were abrogated by the selective p38 inhibitor SB203580, but not gefitinib, indicating that EGFRvIII is recruited to p38-mediated non-canonical endocytosis. The combination of TMZ and SB203580 also showed potential inhibitory effects on the proliferation and motility of glioblastoma cells.

Radial linear perivascular emphasis in coronavirus disease 2019-associated acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.

A 62-year-old woman with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) developed coma on day 19 after her pneumonia was ameliorated. Brain magnetic resonance imaging with gadolinium showed radial linear perivascular enhancement, typically seen in glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) astrocytopathy, although anti-GFAP antibody results were negative. Her consciousness recovered with high-dose steroid administration. We diagnosed the patient with COVID-19-associated acute disseminated encephalomyelopathy (ADEM) with radial linear perivascular emphasis.

ERK-mediated negative feedback regulation of oncogenic EGFRvIII in glioblastoma cells.

Epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) is the most common active EGFR mutant in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The expression of this mutant often correlates with a poor patient prognosis due to its ability to extend downstream signaling. The EGFR pathway is controlled by a negative feedback mechanism that restricts the extent and length of downstream signaling. To date, the role of negative feedback in the oncogenic EGFRvIII mutant remains undetermined. The present study indicated that activation of the MEK-ERK pathway led to the phosphorylation of Thr-402, a conserved negative feedback residue in the juxtamembrane domain corresponding to Thr-669 of wild-type EGFR (EGFRwt), which resulted in a rapid reduction in the tyrosine phosphorylation of EGFRvIII in U87MG human glioblastoma and 293 cells. Moreover, despite the incapability of EGFRvIII to bind ligands, EGF was indicated to downregulate the tyrosine phosphorylation of EGFRvIII by activating the EGFRwt-ERK pathway. These results demonstrated a conserved negative feedback mechanism in the activation of EGFRvIII, which presents a new aspect in functional interactions between EGFRvIII and EGFRwt in glioblastoma cells.

Negative feedback regulation of ErbB4 tyrosine kinase activity by ERK-mediated non-canonical phosphorylation.

ErbB4 receptor tyrosine kinase has four different isoforms that are classified based on variants in the extracellular juxtamembrane domain (JM-a and JM-b) and the C-terminal region (CYT-1 and CYT-2). Here, we used the JM-b/CYT-1 isoform to investigate the roles of serine/threonine phosphorylation in MEK-ERK-dependent feedback inhibition. TPA as an activator of the ERK pathway markedly induced ErbB4 phosphorylation at Thr-674, the conserved common feedback site in the intracellular JM domain, which resulted in the downregulation of tyrosine autophosphorylation. We also identified Ser-1026 as an ErbB4-specific ERK target site in the CYT-1 region. Moreover, double mutations (Thr-674/Ser-1026 to Ala) significantly upregulated ErbB4 activation, indicating that Thr-674 and Ser-1026 are cooperatively involved in negative feedback regulation. Given the fact that ErbB4 mutation is one of the most common genetic alterations in melanoma cells, we demonstrated that a typical oncogenic ErbB4 mutant was resistant to the negative feedback regulation to maintain a highly active status of tyrosine kinase activity. Together, these findings indicate that feedback mechanisms are key switches determining oncogenic potentials of ErbB receptor kinases.