Parkinson's disease is the most frequent neurodegenerative motor disorder. The clinical syndrome and pathology involve motor disturbance and the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Root extracts of Withania. somnifera, commonly called Ashwagandha, contain several major chemical constituents known as withanolides. Studies have shown that W. somnifera extracts exhibit numerous therapeutic effects including inflammation and oxidative stress reduction, memory and cognitive function improvement. This study aimed to evaluate the protective effects of KSM-66, W. somnifera root extract, on 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced toxicity in the human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line, as well as the associated oxidative response protein expression and redox regulation activity focused on S-glutathionylation. SH-SY5Y cells were treated with 6-OHDA preceded or followed by treatment with the KSM-66 extract. Using KSM-66 concentrations ranging from 0.25 to 1 mg/ml before and after treatment of the cells with 6-OHDA has resulted in an increased viability of SH-SY5Y cells. Interestingly, the extract significantly increased glutathione peroxidase activity and thioltransferase activity upon pre-or post-6-OHDA treatment. KSM-66 also modulated oxidative response proteins: peroxiredoxin-I, VGF and vimentin proteins upon 6-OHDA pre/post treatments. In addition, the extract controlled redox regulation via Sglutathionylation. Pre-treatment of SH-SY5Y cells with KSM-66 decreased protein-glutathionylation levels in the cells treated with 6-OHDA. The rescue of mitochondria with 0.5 mg/ml KSM-66 extract showed an increase in ATP levels. These findings suggest that W. somnifera root extract acts as a neuroprotectant, thereby introducing a potential agent for the treatment or prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.

Dengue virus (DenV) is an arthropod-borne Flavivirus that can cause a range of symptomatic disease in humans. There are four dengue viruses (DENV 1 to 4) and infection with one DENV only provides transient protection against a heterotypic virus. Second infections are often more severe as the disease is potentiated by antibodies from the first infection through a process known as antibody dependent enhancement (ADe) of infection. phosphorylation is a major post-translational modification that can have marked effects on a number of processes. To date there has been little information on the phosphorylation changes induced by DenV infection. this study aimed to determine global phosphoproteome changes induced by DENV 2 in U937 cells infected under an ADE protocol. A 2-dimensional electrophoretic approach coupled with a phosphoprotein-specific dye and mass spectroscopic analysis identified 15 statistically significant differentially phosphorylated proteins upon DENV 2 infection. One protein identified as significantly differentially phosphorylated, pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) was validated. Treatment with a PKM2 inhibitor modestly reduced levels of infection and viral output, but no change was seen in cellular viral protein levels, suggesting that PKM2 acts on exocytic virus release. While the effect of inhibition of PKM2 was relatively modest, the results highlight the need for a greater understanding of the role of phosphoproteins in DenV infection. Dengue virus (DENV; family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus) is an enveloped, single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus that encodes for 10 proteins (three structural and seven non-structural) 1. Transmitted to humans primarily by Aedes genus mosquitoes infection can result in a range of symptoms from mild to severe. Approximately half the world population is at risk of DENV infection 2 , with three-quarters of these residing in the Asia-Pacific region, with 1.3 billion living in ten DENV endemic countries in Southeast Asia 3. There are four serotypes of DENV, DENV 1 to DENV 4. In Thailand, only 5.8% and 4.7% of primary infections were found to be caused by infection with DENV 2 or DENV 4, whereas DENV 1 and DENV 3 caused 27.5% and 29.6% of infections, respectively. Interestingly, secondary infections were found in 91.8% and 90.6% of DENV 2 and DENV 4 infections, and in patients with the clinical presentations of DHF/DSS, DENV 2 and DENV 4 were found in 87.2% and 84.4% of cases, respectively 4. Similarly, another study reported that almost all of DHF cases caused by DENV 2 and DENV 4 were secondary infections, suggesting that DENV 2 and DENV

Abstract.Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease. The disease is associated with dopaminergic neuron losses in the substantia nigra area of the brain and the formation of cytoplasmic inclusion bodies. Human glutathione transferase omega 1 (hGSTO1) appears to have a role in modulating stress response. The study was aimed to elucidate differentially expressed proteins caused by oxidative stress induced by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Human neuronal cells SH-SY5Y overexpressing hGSTO1 were used to investigate protein glutathionylation and the modulation of cellular protein expression. Therefore SH-SY5Y/hGSTO1 and SH-SY5Y/control lysate proteins were separated by 2D-gel electrophoresis compared with untreated conditions in both standard and non-reducing conditions. In standard conditions, the analysis of protein profiles demonstrated 25 differentially expressed spots and 10 spots were chosen for further protein identification by LC-MS analysis. Several proteins were later identified as vimentin, galectin-1, high mobility group protein B2, clathrin, tropomyosin, heterogenous nuclear ribonucleoprotein and peroxiredoxin-2. Search Tool for Interactions of Chemicals (STITCH) analysis suggested that oxidative stress induced by 6-OHDA involved carbohydrate metabolism in SH-SY5Y via a lactose metabolic pathway. Our results raise the possibility that hGSTO1 modulates the functions of many proteins that play a role in the degenerative cell response of a Parkinson's model.

Nevirapine (NVP) is an effective nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) of particular interest as it is often used in resource limited countries. However, one of the main concerns with the use of NVP is hepatotoxicity and elevation of liver enzymes as a consequence of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) containing NVP is more often reported in HIV patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus than in HIV-monoinfected patients. To discover possible markers of NVP induced hepatotoxicity, serum and urine samples from twenty-five HIV or HIV/HCV patients, all of whom had received NVP continuously for at least four months, and healthy controls were subjected to in-solution or in-gel proteomic analysis. A total of 83 differentially regulated proteins consisted of 34 proteins identified in serum by in-solution analysis, 2 proteins identified from serum in a 2D gel electrophoresis analysis, and 47 proteins identified in urine in an in-solution analysis. Three proteins, namely, haptoglobin, Rho-related BTB domain containing protein 3, and death-associated protein kinase 3, were selected for further validation by Western blot analysis and results showed that haptoglobin has potential for further development as an additional marker of NVP induced hepatotoxicity.

The comparison of serum proteins between the three groups revealed three candidates which are related to chronic inflammatory diseases. Haptoglobin and transthyretin biomarkers could be applied in clinical assessment for monitor of disease outcome, including for the study of AOID pathogenesis.