Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về y học được đăng trên tạp chí y học Critical Care giúp cho các bạn có thêm kiến thức về ngành y học đề tài: Cytoplasmic dynein could be key to understanding neurodegeneration. | Minireview Cytoplasmic dynein could be key to understanding neurodegeneration Gareth T Banks and Elizabeth MC Fisher Address Department of Neurodegenerative Disease Institute of Neurology Queen Square London WC1N 3BG UK. Correspondence Gareth T Banks. Email Elizabeth M Fisher Email. Published 28 March 2008 Genome Biology 2008 9 214 doi gb-2008-9-3-214 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http 2008 9 3 214 2008 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract A new mouse mutation Sprawling highlights an essential role for the dynein heavy chain in sensory neuron function but it lacks the ability of other known heavy-chain mutations to ameliorate neurodegeneration due to defective superoxide dismutase. Eukaryotic cells transport molecules complexes and organelles around the cell by means of energy-dependent motor proteins. The main motor responsible for movement of cargos to the minus end of microtubules is cytoplasmic dynein. This is a huge multisubunit protein complex that interacts with many intracellular pathways and whose multifarious roles in the cell are far from being completely understood. In neurons dynein is the major retrograde motor moving cargoes from the synapse along the axon and back to the cell body. Previous mutations in the core of this motor - the dynein heavy chain - are known to ameliorate neurodegeneration in mouse models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS . A recent paper by Chen Popko and colleagues 1 reporting a new mouse mutant for the dynein heavy chain extends our knowledge of the effects of dynein mutations on the nervous system but the mystery of dynein s relation to neurodegenerative disease thickens. Cytoplasmic dynein is a large complex of proteins whose constituent members are the heavy chain encoded by a single gene the intermediate chains two genes the lightintermediate chains two genes and the light chains three genes 2 . The
