Anna Bogucka-Kocka

Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease Begins as Episodes of Brain Ischemia and Ischemically Dysregulated Alzheimer’s Disease Genes

The study of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease etiology, now more than ever, needs an infusion of new concepts. Despite ongoing interest in Alzheimer’s disease, the basis of this entity is not yet clear. At present, the best-established and accepted “culprit” in Alzheimer’s disease pathology by most scientists is the amyloid, as the main molecular factor responsible for neurodegeneration in this disease. Abnormal upregulation of amyloid production or a disturbed clearance mechanism may lead to pathological accumulation of amyloid in brain according to the “amyloid hypothesis.” We will critically review these observations and highlight inconsistencies between the predictions of the “amyloid hypothesis” and the published data. There is still controversy over the role of amyloid in the pathological process. A question arises whether amyloid is responsible for the neurodegeneration or if it accumulates because of the neurodegeneration. Recent evidence suggests that the pathophysiology and neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease comprises more than amyloid accumulation, tau protein pathology and finally brain atrophy with dementia. Nowadays, a handful of researchers share a newly emerged view that the ischemic episodes of brain best describe the pathogenic cascade, which eventually leads to neuronal loss, especially in hippocampus, with amyloid accumulation, tau protein pathology and irreversible dementia of Alzheimer type. The most persuasive evidences come from investigations of ischemically damaged brains of patients and from experimental ischemic brain studies that mimic Alzheimer-type dementia. This review attempts to depict what we know and do not know about the triggering factor of the Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on the possibility that the initial pathological trigger involves ischemic episodes and ischemia-induced gene dysregulation. The resulting brain ischemia dysregulates additionally expression of amyloid precursor protein and amyloid-processing enzyme genes that, in addition, ultimately compromise brain functions, leading over time to the complex alterations that characterize advanced sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. The identification of the genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease induced by ischemia will enable to further define the events leading to sporadic Alzheimer’s disease-related abnormalities. Additionally, knowledge gained from the above investigations should facilitate the elaboration of the effective treatment and/or prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.

Two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography with adsorbent gradient as a method of chromatographic fingerprinting of furanocoumarins for distinguishing selected varieties and forms of Heracleum spp.

There are a lot of taxonomic classifications of the genus Heracleum, and many authors indicate they need revision. Morphological identification is difficult to perform, as there are only few characteristic differences between each Heracleum species, varieties and forms. Furanocoumarins are characteristic compounds for the Apiaceae family, and they can be found in the whole genus in large quantities. Despite this fact, it is difficult to use the furanocoumarin profiles of plants, for their discrimination, as furanocoumarins are difficult to separate, due to their similar chemical structures and physicochemical properties. In this paper, a new, simple method is proposed for the discrimination of selected species, varieties and forms of the genus Heracleum. Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) with an adsorbent gradient (unmodified silica gel+octadecylsilica wettable with water) enables complete separation of the structural analogues. The proposed method gives the possibility to distinguish selected species, varieties and forms of the Heracleum genus, as they produce distinctive furanocoumarin fingerprints. The method is characterised by high specificity, precision, reproducibility and stability values. It is for the first time that graft TLC is used for constructing fingerprints of herbs. The complete separation of ten structural analogues, by combining gradient TLC with the unidimensional multiple development technique, has not been reported yet.

Apoptotic activities of ethanol extracts from some Apiaceae on human leukaemia cell lines.

Apiaceae are a family of medicinal plants widely used in traditional medicine. The apoptotic activities of seven ethanol extracts from fruits of seven species of Apiaceae, Eryngium planum, Archangelica officinalis, Pastinaca sativa, Heracleum sibiricum, Carum carvi, Foeniculum vulgare, Levisticum officinale against ML-1--human acute myeloblastic leukaemia, J-45.01--human acute T cell leukaemia, EOL--human eosinophilic leukaemia, HL-60--human Caucasian promyelocytic leukaemia, 1301--human T cell leukaemia lymphoblast, C-8166--human T cell leukaemia, U-266B1--human myeloma, WICL--human Caucasian normal B cell, and H-9--human T cell, were investigated.

The start-to-end chemometric image processing of 2D thin-layer videoscans

The purpose of the research was to recommend a unified procedure of image preprocessing of 2D thin layer videoscans for further supervised or unsupervised chemometric analysis. All work was done with open source software. The videoscans saved as JPG files underwent the following procedures: denoising using a median filter, baseline removal with the rollerball algorithm and nonlinear warping using spline functions. The application of the proposed procedure enabled filtration of random difference between images (background intensity changes and spatial differences of the spots location). After the preprocessing only spot intensities have an influence on the performed PCA or other techniques. The proposed technique was successfully applied to recognize the differences between three Carex species from the 2D videoscans of the extracts. The proposed solution may be of value for the any chemometric task--both unsupervised and supervised.

Dysregulation of Amyloid-β Protein Precursor, β-Secretase, Presenilin 1 and 2 Genes in the Rat Selectively Vulnerable CA1 Subfield of Hippocampus Following Transient Global Brain Ischemia

Abstract The interaction between brain ischemia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been intensively investigated recently. Nevertheless, we have not yet understood the nature and mechanisms of the ischemic episodes triggering the onset of AD and how they influence its slow progression. The assumed connection between brain ischemia and the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide awaits to be clearly explained. In our research, we employed a rat cardiac arrest model to study the changes in gene expression of amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP) and its cleaving enzymes, β- and γ-secretases (including presenilins) in hippocampal CA1 sector, following transient 10-min global brain ischemia. The quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR assay demonstrated that the expression of all above genes that contribute to Aβ peptide generation was dysregulated during 30 days in postischemic hippocampal CA1 area. It suggests that studied Aβ peptide generation-related genes can be involved in AβPP metabolism, following global brain ischemia and will be useful to identify the molecular mechanisms underpinning that cerebral ischemia might be an etiological cause of AD via dysregulation of AβPP and its cleaving enzymes, β- and γ-secretases genes, and subsequently, it may increase Aβ peptide production and promote the gradual and slow development of AD neuropathology. Our data demonstrate that brain ischemia activates delayed neuronal death in hippocampus in an AβPP-dependent manner, thus defining a new and important mode of ischemic cell death.

Two-Dimensional thin-layer chromatography of structural analogs. Part I: Graft TLC of selected coumarins

Coumarins are natural, biologically active substances, normally found in complex mixtures. Unfortunately their separation causes many difficulties, because of to their similar chemical structure and physicochemical properties. A new, reliable method has been established for analysis of coumarin fractions present in selected fruit extracts. The substances were separated in chromatographic systems that enabled use of orthogonal separation mechanisms (i.e. characterized by different selectivity). The greatest selectivity differences were obtained by use of two chromatographic systems — first dimension CN-silica with 30% ACN in H2O as mobile phase (triple developed) and second dimension SiO2 with 35% AcOEt in n -heptane as mobile phase (triple developed), or first dimension SiO2 with 35% AcOEt in n -heptane as mobile phase (triple developed) and second dimension RP-18 with 55% MeOH in H2O as mobile phase. The aforementioned two-dimensional TLC systems were used for separation of coumarin fractions present in extracts from Archangelica officinalis, Pastinaca sativa and Heracleum sphondylium fruits.

Determination of Shikonin and Rosmarinic Acid in Echium vulgare L. and Echium russicum J.F. Gmel. by Capillary Electrophoresis

A simple and rapid capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) procedure for determination of shikonin and rosmarinic acid in roots of Echium vulgare L. and Echium russicum J.F. Gmel. is described. The separation was achieved in less than 4 min. The analysis was performed in fused silica capillary (i.d. 75 µm, 48.5 cm total length) using 50 mM borate, at pH 9.5 as the run buffer with applied voltage of 30 kV and constant temperature (27 °C). The method ensures good linearity and repeatability with high correlation coefficients (0.994 and 0.998 for shikonin and rosmarinic acid, respectively). The compounds were detected by UV absorption at 218 (shikonin) and 202 nm (rosmarinic acid). The limits of detection (LOD) for shikonin and rosmarinic acid were 0.603 ppm and 0.270 ppm, respectively. The method was used for estimation of both components in Echium plants. We found out that the content of shikonin and rosmarinic acid were 4.4–4.8 mg/kg air-dry material and 20.0–54.2 mg/kg air-dry material, respectively, in the Echium species analyzed.

Two-Dimensional Thin-Layer Chromatography of Structural Analogs. Part II. Method for Quantitative Analysis of Selected Coumarins in Plant Material

Coumarins are interesting group of natural compounds, because of their biological and pharmacological activity, and are widely investigated. They are normally found in complex mixtures, e.g. plant extracts, and are difficult to separate in one chromatographic run. Mixtures of coumarins have been separated by two-dimensional thin-layer chromatography on CN-silica plates by use of aqueous and nonaqueous mobile phases. Complete separation was also achieved by use of graft thin-layer chromatography on connected layers — silica with RP-18W or CN-silica with silica. The systems characterized by the best efficiency and selectivity were used for separation of coumarin fractions from extracts of selected Apiaceae plants. These orthogonal systems were used for quantitative analysis of selected coumarins. The results obtained show two dimensional thin-layer chromatography is useful tool for quantification of some furanocoumarins in plant extracts. The best results were obtained on connected silica and octadecyl silica layers.

Alzheimer-associated presenilin 2 gene is dysregulated in rat medial temporal lobe cortex after complete brain ischemia due to cardiac arrest

BACKGROUND Brain ischemia may be causally related with Alzheimers disease. Probably, presenilin gene dysregulation may be associated with Alzheimers disease neuropathology. Consequently, we have examined quantitative changes in both presenilin 1 and 2 genes in the medial temporal lobe cortex following 10-min global brain ischemia in rats. METHODS Global brain ischemia was induced by cardiac arrest in female rats that were allowed to survive for 2, 7 and 30 days. The expression of presenilin genes was evaluated in the rat medial temporal lobe cortex with the use of quantitative RT-PCR analysis. RESULTS Presenilin 1 gene expression tended to be downregulated from days 2 to 7 postischemia but at day 30, there was a reverse tendency. The greatest overexpression of presenilin 2 gene was noted at 2-nd day whilst on day 7, the expression of this gene was only modestly elevated. Eventually, at day 30 expression of presenilin 2 gene was modestly downregulated. Alterations of presenilin 2 gene expression between 2 and 7 days and between 2 and 30 days were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Thus, presented changes suggest that the significant dysregulation of presenilin 2 gene may be connected with a response of neuronal cells to transient global brain ischemia due to cardiac arrest. Finally, the ischemia-induced gene dysregulation may play a key role in the late onset of Alzheimers-type dementia.

Brain ischemia with Alzheimer phenotype dysregulates Alzheimer's disease-related proteins

There are evidences for the influence of Alzheimers proteins on postischemic brain injury. We present here an overview of the published evidence underpinning the relationships between β-amyloid peptide, hyperphosphorylated tau protein, presenilins, apolipoproteins, secretases and neuronal survival/death decisions after ischemia and development of postischemic dementia. The interactions of above molecules and their influence and contribution to final ischemic brain degeneration resulting in dementia of Alzheimer phenotype are reviewed. Generation and deposition of β-amyloid peptide and tau protein pathology are essential factors involved in Alzheimers disease development as well as in postischemic brain dementia. Postischemic injuries demonstrate that ischemia may stimulate pathological amyloid precursor protein processing by upregulation of β- and γ-secretases and therefore are capable of establishing a vicious cycle. Functional postischemic brain recovery is always delayed and incomplete by an injury-related increase in the amount of the neurotoxic C-terminal of amyloid precursor protein and β-amyloid peptide. Finally, we present here the concept that Alzheimers proteins can contribute to and/or precipitate postischemic brain neurodegeneration including dementia with Alzheimers phenotype.