PC12
Nicotine protects PC12 cells from cell death resulting from serum depletion through a mechanism that depends upon the function of IP3 receptors, L-type calcium channels, ryanodine receptors, and ERK, suggesting that the protective effect of nicotine is mediated by calcium signaling pathways (Ren et al., 2005). PubMed:19293145
Furthermore, inhibitors of SRC, a closely related tyrosine kinase, also prevent nicotinic protection of differentiated PC12 cells against serum-deprivation-induced cell death (Li et al., 1999b), and inhibitors of FYN or Janus kinase-2 (JAK-2) block the neuroprotection against Abeta toxicity of therapeutic AChE inhibitors (Takada-Takatori et al., 2006). PubMed:19293145
It is also noteworthy that Abeta-induced tau protein phosphorylation in PC12 cells is inhibited not only by alpha7 agonists, as would be predicted from the role of alpha7 nAChRs in neuroprotection, but also by alpha-bungarotoxin (Hu et al., 2008), as might be predicted if the competition by alpha-bungarotoxin for the Abeta site blocked a direct action of Abeta on nAChRs. It is therefore possible that the toxicity of Abeta is mediated, at least in part, through a direct physical interaction between Abeta and nAChRs. PubMed:19293145
Furthermore, inhibitors of SRC, a closely related tyrosine kinase, also prevent nicotinic protection of differentiated PC12 cells against serum-deprivation-induced cell death (Li et al., 1999b), and inhibitors of FYN or Janus kinase-2 (JAK-2) block the neuroprotection against Abeta toxicity of therapeutic AChE inhibitors (Takada-Takatori et al., 2006). PubMed:19293145
Nicotinic neuroprotection against non-Abeta toxicity is also mediated largely through alpha7 nAChRs. alpha7 nAChRs protect PC12 cells against ethanol toxicity (Li et al., 1999a) and from cell death associated with serum depletion (Ren et al., 2005); they protect cultured neurons against glutamate-induced excitotoxicity (Kaneko et al., 1997) and hippocampal slices against oxygen and glucose deprivation (Egea et al., 2007) through the activation of alpha7 nAChRs (Rosa et al., 2006). PubMed:19293145
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If you find BEL Commons useful in your work, please consider citing: Hoyt, C. T., Domingo-Fernández, D., & Hofmann-Apitius, M. (2018). BEL Commons: an environment for exploration and analysis of networks encoded in Biological Expression Language. Database, 2018(3), 1–11.