Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by extracellular plaques containing abnormal Amyloid Beta (Aβ) aggregates, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles containing hyperphosphorylated tau protein, microglia-dominated neuroinflammation, and impairments in synaptic plasticity underlying cognitive deficits. Therapeutic strategies for the treatment of AD a...

Leucin-rich, glioma inactivated 1 (LGI1) is a secreted protein linked to human seizures of both genetic and autoimmune aetiology. Mutations in the LGI1 gene are responsible for autosomal dominant temporal lobe epilepsy with auditory features, whereas LGI1 autoantibodies are involved in limbic encephalitis, an acquired epileptic disorder associated with cognitive impairment. We and others previo...

Mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene have been identified as an unambiguous cause of late-onset, autosomal-dominant familial Parkinson's disease (PD) and LRRK2 mutations are the strongest genetic risk factor for sporadic PD known to date. A number of transgenic mice expressing wild-type or mutant LRRK2 have been described with varying degrees of LRRK2-related abnormalities...

We previously reported that the continuous feeding of mice with pellets of pregerminated brown rice (PGBR; Hatsuga genmai in Japanese) enhances their spatial learning. Here, we show the possible relationships of the enhancement of learning and memory with the glutamatergic system in the brain of PGBR-pellet-fed mice. The enhancement of learning and memory in the novel object recognition and Y-m...

background: while traditional semen parameters are of significant clinical value, total fertilization failure in ivf cycles is not uncommon. sperm function testing such as; hamster egg penetration test has severed limitations as a clinical test. the aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of semen parameters by using of intracellular calcium [ca2+]i increase in response to proges...

Lithocholic acid (LCA) deposited in human livers always induces drastic pains which need analgesic drug, like morphine to release. Our research showed that LCA can effectively inhibit uridine 5'-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase 2B7 (UGT2B7) in morphine tolerance-like human normal liver cells, HL-7702, then increase μ-opioid receptor (MOR) and calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase IIα (Ca...

Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is essential for synaptic plasticity underlying memory formation. Some functions of CaMKII are mediated by interactions with synaptic proteins, and activity-triggered translocation of CaMKII to synapses has been heavily studied. However, CaMKII actions away from the postsynaptic density (PSD) remain poorly understood, in part because of th...

Corticospinal tract (CST) neurons are dislocated in the motor cortex of Reelin-deficient mouse, reeler. In the present study, we examined whether postnatal axonal growth arising from these dislocated CST neurons are normal or not with use of anterograde tracer, DiI and retrograde tracer, HRP. A single injection of DiI into the motor cortex of the normal and reeler mice was made during postnatal...

In this review we discuss the localization and function of the known subtypes of calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase IIδ (CaMKIIδ) and their role in cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. The CaMKII holoenzyme is comprised of multiple subunits that are encoded by four different genes called CaMKIIα, β, γ, and δ. While these four genes have a high degree of sequence homology, they are e...