Male patients with NPC1 heterozygous mutation (Npc1+/-) are prone to obesity and diabetes, yet the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, male Npc1+/- mice (C57BL/6C-Npc1) were used evaluate effects of combined 60% high-fat diet (HFD) on glucolipid metabolism, cholesterol accumulation, islet dysfunction β-cell dedifferentiation. Compared HFD-Npc1+/+ or fed low-fat (LFD), body weight HFD-Npc1...

BACKGROUND Niemann-Pick disease type C is a rare metabolic disease characterized by progressive neurological deterioration with childhood onset, and often results in premature mortality. Niemann-Pick disease type C has an extremely heterogeneous clinical presentation with a wide range of visceral and neurological signs and symptoms that are not specific to the disease, and which progress over v...

Ebolaviruses constitute a public health threat, particularly in Central and Western Africa. Host cell factors required for spread of ebolaviruses may serve as targets for antiviral intervention. Lectins, TAM receptor tyrosine kinases (Tyro3, Axl, Mer), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain (TIM) proteins, integrins, and Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) have been reported to promote entry of ebolaviruses...

Niemann-Pick type C is a neurological disorder caused by mutations in the lysosome cholesterol exporter NPC1. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Davis et al. dissect how NPC1 loss elevates mTORC1 signaling, and demonstrate that suppression signaling can rescue disease pathology NPC1-deficient cell models. Lysosomes are key degradation organelles. As centers catabolic metabolism, they receive ...

Ebolavirus (EBOV), an enveloped filamentous RNA virus causing severe hemorrhagic fever, enters cells by macropinocytosis and membrane fusion in a late endosomal compartment. Fusion is mediated by the EBOV envelope glycoprotein GP, which consists of subunits GP1 and GP2. GP1 binds to cellular receptors, including Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1) protein, and GP2 is responsible for low pH-induced membrane ...

RATIONALE The synthetic sphingosine analog FTY720 is undergoing clinical trials as an immunomodulatory compound, acting primarily via sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor activation. Sphingolipid and cholesterol homeostasis are closely connected but whether FTY720 affects atherogenesis in humans is not known. OBJECTIVE We examined the effects of FTY720 on the processing of scavenged lipoprotein c...

BACKGROUND Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused most commonly by a defect in the NPC1 protein and characterized by widespread intracellular accumulation of unesterified cholesterol and glycosphingolipids (GSLs). While current treatment therapies are limited, a few drugs tested in Npc1(-/-) mice have shown partial benefit. During a combination treatment ...

1. Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is an autosomal recessive lipidosis with protean clinical manifestations, distinguished biochemically by a unique error in cellular trafficking of exogenous cholesterol that is associated with lysosomal accumulation of unesterified cholesterol. A majority of patients with this phenotype are linked genetically to chromosome 18, the locus of Niemann-Pick dise...

Statins, 3-hydroxyl-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors, are the first-line medications prescribed for the prevention and treatment of coronary artery diseases. The efficacy of statins has been attributed not only to their systemic cholesterol-lowering actions but also to their pleiotropic effects that are unrelated to cholesterol reduction. These pleiotropic effects have been incr...