University of Dundee

About: University of Dundee is a education organization based out in Dundee, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Protein kinase A. The organization has 19258 authors who have published 39640 publications receiving 1919433 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitas Dundensis & Dundee University.

Brain energy rescue: an emerging therapeutic concept for neurodegenerative disorders of ageing

Abstract: The brain requires a continuous supply of energy in the form of ATP, most of which is produced from glucose by oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria, complemented by aerobic glycolysis in the cytoplasm. When glucose levels are limited, ketone bodies generated in the liver and lactate derived from exercising skeletal muscle can also become important energy substrates for the brain. In neurodegenerative disorders of ageing, brain glucose metabolism deteriorates in a progressive, region-specific and disease-specific manner — a problem that is best characterized in Alzheimer disease, where it begins presymptomatically. This Review discusses the status and prospects of therapeutic strategies for countering neurodegenerative disorders of ageing by improving, preserving or rescuing brain energetics. The approaches described include restoring oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis, increasing insulin sensitivity, correcting mitochondrial dysfunction, ketone-based interventions, acting via hormones that modulate cerebral energetics, RNA therapeutics and complementary multimodal lifestyle changes. Accumulating evidence indicates that impaired glucose metabolism in the brain is involved in the cause and progression of neurodegenerative disorders of ageing such as Alzheimer disease. This Review discusses the status and prospects of therapeutic strategies for countering neurodegenerative disorders of ageing by rescuing, protecting or normalizing brain energetics.

Excess Mcm2–7 license dormant origins of replication that can be used under conditions of replicative stress

Abstract: In late mitosis and early G1, replication origins are licensed for subsequent use by loading complexes of the minichromosome maintenance proteins 2–7 (Mcm2–7). The number of Mcm2–7 complexes loaded onto DNA greatly exceeds the number of replication origins used during S phase, but the function of the excess Mcm2–7 is unknown. Using Xenopus laevis egg extracts, we show that these excess Mcm2–7 complexes license additional dormant origins that do not fire during unperturbed S phases because of suppression by a caffeine-sensitive checkpoint pathway. Use of these additional origins can allow complete genome replication in the presence of replication inhibitors. These results suggest that metazoan replication origins are actually comprised of several candidate origins, most of which normally remain dormant unless cells experience replicative stress. Consistent with this model, using Caenorhabditis elegans, we show that partial RNAi-based knockdown of MCMs that has no observable effect under normal conditions causes lethality upon treatment with low, otherwise nontoxic, levels of the replication inhibitor hydroxyurea.

Kinase Drug Discovery – What’s Next in the Field?

Abstract: Over the past 15 years protein kinases have become the pharmaceutical industry's most important class of drug target in the field of cancer Some 20 drugs that target kinases have been approved for clinical use over the past decade, and hundreds more are undergoing clinical trials However, the recent approval of the first protein kinase inhibitors for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, coupled with an enhanced understanding of the signaling networks that control the immune system, suggests that there will be a surge of interest in this area over the next 10 years In this connection, we discuss opportunities for targeting protein kinases in the MyD88 signaling network for the development of drugs to treat chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases Activating mutations in protein kinases underlie many other diseases and conditions, and we also discuss why the protein kinases SPAK/OSR1 and LRRK2 have recently become interesting targets for the treatment of hypertension and Parkinson's disease, respectively, and the progress that has been made in developing LRRK2 inhibitors Finally we suggest that more focus on the identification of inhibitors of kinase activation, rather than kinase activity, may pay dividends in identifying exquisitely specific inhibitors of signal transduction cascades, and we also highlight "pseudo-kinases" as an attractive and unexplored area for drug development that merits much more attention in the years to come