AIMS DJ-1/park7, a multifunctional protein, may play essential roles in the vascular system. However, the function of DJ-1/park7 in vascular contractility has remained unclear. The present study was designed to investigate whether the DJ-1/park7 is involved in the regulation of vascular contractility and systolic blood pressure (SBP). METHODS AND RESULTS Norepinephrine (NE) elevated contracti...

Inherited mutations in PARK7, the gene encoding DJ-1, are associated with loss of protein function and early-onset parkinsonism. Like human DJ-1 (hDJ-1), Drosophila DJ-1b protects against oxidative insult and is modified with oxidation. We demonstrate that hDJ-1 rescues flies mutant for DJ-1b, and that a conserved cysteine residue in the fly protein (C104, analogous to C106 in hDJ-1) is critica...

DJ-1, the product of familial Parkinson's disease gene and an oncogene, is a cysteine protease which plays a role in anti-oxidative stress reaction. In this study, we identified the recognition sequence for DJ-1 protease by using recombinant DJ-1 and a peptide library. Protease activity of DJ-1 lacking C-terminal α-helix (DJ-1ΔH9) was stronger than that of full-sized DJ-1, and the most suscepti...

The loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra is the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). While the etiology of sporadic PD remains elusive, an inherited form of early-onset familial PD is linked to mutations of DJ-1. To understand the biological function of DJ-1 and its relevance to the pathogenesis of PD, we investigated the function of DJ-1 using Drosophila. Drosophi...

BACKGROUND DJ-1 is found in many tissues, including the brain, where it has been extensively studied due to its association with Parkinson's disease. DJ-1 functions as a redox-sensitive molecular chaperone and transcription regulator that robustly protects cells from oxidative stress. METHODOLOGY Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cultures were treated with H2O2 for various times followed by bi...

Both homozygous (L166P, M26I, deletion) and heterozygous mutations (D149A, A104T) in the DJ-1 gene have been identified in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The biochemical function and subcellular localization of DJ-1 protein have not been clarified. To date the localization of DJ-1 protein has largely been described in studies over-expressing tagged DJ-1 protein in vitro. It is not known whe...

2’-Benzoyloxycinnamaldehyde (BCA) is a promising anticancer candidate against several types of cancers, including breast cancer. DJ-1 has been found to act as an oncogene, protecting cells against oxidative stress. A previous study showed that BCA-inducing antiproliferation was associated with continuous decrease in DJ-1 expression in MDA-MB-435 breast cancer cells. In this study, we found that...

Loss-of-function DJ-1 mutations can cause early-onset Parkinson's disease. The function of DJ-1 is unknown, but an acidic isoform accumulates after oxidative stress, leading to the suggestion that DJ-1 is protective under these conditions. We addressed whether this represents a posttranslational modification at cysteine residues by systematically mutating cysteine residues in human DJ-1. WT or ...

Loss-of-function mutation in the DJ-1 gene causes a subset of familial Parkinson disease. The mechanism underlying DJ-1-related selective vulnerability in the dopaminergic pathway is, however, not known. DJ-1 has multiple functions, including transcriptional regulation, and one of transcriptional target genes for DJ-1 is the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene, the product of which is a key enzyme f...