A sideway glance: a new role for endoplasmic reticulum chemical chaperones as leptin sensitizers

Endoplasmic Reticulum Quality Control and Pharmacological Chaperones

In cells, the quality of newly synthesized proteins is monitored with endoplasmic reticulum quality control (ERQC) in regard to proper folding and correct assembly in the early secretory pathway. Sequential checkpoints are distributed along the early secretory pathway, allowing efficiency and fidelity in protein secretion. Recently, ERQC has been mathematically modeled by breaking it into three...

Co-chaperones of the mammalian endoplasmic reticulum.

In mammalian cells, the rough endoplasmic reticulum or ER plays a central role in the biogenesis of most extracellular plus many organellar proteins and in cellular calcium homeostasis. Therefore, this organelle comprises molecular chaperones that are involved in import, folding/assembly, export, and degradation of polypeptides in millimolar concentrations. In addition, there are calcium channe...

Calcium binding chaperones of the endoplasmic reticulum.

The endoplasmic reticulum is a major Ca(2+) store of the cell that impacts many cellular processes within the cell. The endoplasmic reticulum has roles in lipid and sterol synthesis, protein folding, post-translational modification and secretion and these functions are affected by intraluminal endoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+). In the endoplasmic reticulum there are several Ca(2+) buffering chaperon...

The neuroprotective potential of endoplasmic reticulum chaperones

Endoplasmic reticulum stress induces leptin resistance.

Leptin is an important circulating signal for inhibiting food intake and body weight gain. In recent years, "leptin resistance" has been considered to be one of the main causes of obesity. However, the detailed mechanisms of leptin resistance are poorly understood. Increasing evidence has suggested that stress signals, which impair endoplasmic reticulum (ER) function, lead to an accumulation of...