Podocytes play an important role in maintaining normal glomerular function and structure, and podocyte injury leads to proteinuria and glomerulosclerosis. The family of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK; extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK], c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and p38) may be implicated in the progression of various glomerulopathies, but the role of MAPK in podocyte injury re...

The nature of "toxic" tau in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been unclear. During pathogenesis, the importance of tau oligomerization vs. tau phosphorylation is controversial and the investigation of both remains critical toward defining the "toxicity" of tau. The phosphorylation of tau on serines and/or threonines occurs early in the disease course and altering phosphorylation has been shown to d...

background and aims: the latency-associated transcript (lat) transcribed by latent herpes simplex virus type-1 in neuron cells are able to influence their host cell pathways. while the most of previous studies were focused on anti-apoptotic effects of lat, our investigation is making an effort to explore lat potency on cell cycle pathway in neuroblastoma cell lines. methods: the evaluation of l...

objective: signaling pathways such as extracellular regulated kinase/mitogen activated protein kinase (erk/mapk) have increased activity in leukemia. ribosomal 6 kinase (rsk4) is a factor downstream of the mapk/erk pathway and an important tumor suppressor which inhibits erk trafficking. decrease in rsk4 expression has been reported in some malignancies, which leads to an increase in growth and...

The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway plays a pivotal role in intracellular signaling, and this cascade may impinge on cAMP response elements (CREs) of target genes. Both the MAPK pathway and chromogranin A expression may be activated by cytosolic calcium influx, and calcium-dependent signals map onto the chromogranin A promoter proximal CRE. We therefore probed the role of the MA...

Dual-specificity MAP kinase phosphatases (MKPs) provide a complex negative regulatory network that acts to shape the duration, magnitude and spatiotemporal profile of MAP kinase activities in response to both physiological and pathological stimuli. Individual MKPs may exhibit either exquisite specificity towards a single mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) isoform or be able to regulate mul...

Lethal factor, the principal virulence factor of Bacillus anthracis, inhibits mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling by proteolytically cleaving MAPK kinases. Edema factor, another component of anthrax toxin, is an adenylate cyclase, which increases intracellular cAMP. Inhibition of MAPK signaling with either anthrax lethal toxin (LeTx) or small molecule MAPK kinase inhibitors trigge...

Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are ubiquitous signaling modules in eukaryotes. Early research of plant MAPKs has been focused on their functions in immunity and stress responses. Recent studies reveal that they also play essential roles in plant growth and development downstream of receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs). With only a limited number of MAPK components, multiple fu...

In the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite germline, spatially restricted mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling controls the meiotic cell cycle. First, the MAPK signal is necessary for the germ cells to progress through pachytene of meiotic prophase I. As the germ cells exit pachytene and enter diplotene/diakinesis, MAPK is inactivated and the developing oocytes arrest in diakines...