QBI Seminar: Wnt signalling mediated cellular and molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease
Event Details
- Date:
- Tuesday, 11 August 2015 - Tuesday, 11 August 2015
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Room:
- QBI Level 7 Auditorium
- UQ Location:
- Queensland Brain Institute (St Lucia)
- URL:
- http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Ms Deirdre Wilson
- Phone:
- 66300
- Email:
- d.wilson5@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Queensland Brain Institute
Event Description
- Full Description:
- Professor Kristen Harvey
Professor of Molecular Neuroscience and Cell Biology, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, UK
Title: Wnt signalling mediated cellular and molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease
Abstract:
Wnt signalling pathways are well known for their importance in embryogenesis and carcinogenesis. They also have a well-established critical role in brain development, especially of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. Nonetheless, the fundamental importance of Wnt signalling for normal function of mature neurones in the adult central nervous system has only recently been demonstrated by an increasing number of studies.
Parkinson's disease is a common debilitating neurodegenerative disease and currently incurable. The aetiology of Parkinson's disease is poorly understood but work performed over the last two decades has identified a growing number of genetic defects that underlie this condition. A growing body of evidence links genetic alterations contributing to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease with Wnt signalling. These observations provide clues to the normal function of these proteins in healthy neurones and suggest that deregulated Wnt signalling might be a frequent pathomechanism leading to Parkinson's disease. We showed that changes in LRRK2 (encoded by LRRK2, PARK8 locus) activity cause alterations in Wnt signalling.
Mutations in LRRK2 are a common cause of familial and idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. The clinical presentation and post-mortem brain pathology of Parkinson's disease patients harbouring LRRK2 mutations is basically indistinguishable from that of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Understanding LRRK2 function and mutant dysfunction in cell biological pathways will therefore further our understanding of pathomechanisms leading to idiopathic Parkinson's disease.
The two main outputs of Wnt signalling are transcriptional regulation and effects on the cytoskeleton. Deregulated Wnt signalling has been increasingly linked to a number of late-onset neurodegenerative diseases. Interestingly, several cell biological functions disrupted in Parkinson’s disease for example cytoskeletal changes are partially controlled by Wnt signalling cascades. Our observations indicate that LRRK2 functions as a scaffold protein in membrane and cytoplasmic Wnt signalling complexes. LRRK2 mutations reduce the interaction with the membrane LRP6 Wnt signalling co-receptor and reduce LRRK2 mediated Wnt signal activation. Thus our data implicate LRRK2 as a central scaffold protein in canonical Wnt signalling, and suggest that LRRK2 mutations contribute to the pathogenesis of PD by altering this crucial signal transduction pathway. These observations have implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in general.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
-
- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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