title: Teneurins and Alzheimer's disease: a suggestive role for a unique family of proteins.
abstract: Alzheimer's disease is a debilitating age-related disorder characterized by distinct pathological hallmarks, such as progressive memory loss and cognitive impairment. During the last few years, several cellular signaling pathways have been associated with the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, such as Notch, mTOR and Wnt. However, the potential factors that modulate these pathways and novel molecular mechanisms that might account for the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease or for therapy against this disease are still matters of intense research. Teneurins are members of a unique protein system that has recently been proposed as a novel and highly conserved regulatory signaling system in the vertebrate brain, so far related with neurite outgrowth and neuronal matching. The similitude in structure and function of teneurins with other cellular signaling pathways, suggests that they may play a critical role in Alzheimer's disease, either through the modulation of transcription factors due to the nuclear translocation of the teneurins intracellular domain, or through the activity of the corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF)-like peptide sequence, called teneurin C-terminal associated peptide. Moreover, the presence of Ca(2+)-binding motifs within teneurins structure and the Zic2-mediated Wnt/β-catenin signaling modulation, allows hypothesize a potential crosslink between teneurins and the Wnt signaling pathway, particularly. Herein, we aim to highlight the main characteristics of teneurins and propose, based on current knowledge of this family of proteins, an interesting review of their potential involvement in Alzheimer's disease.
authors: Laboratorio de Biología Celular y Molecular, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile. Electronic address: sbastiasc@uta.cl.
authors: Sussy
authors: S
authors: Bastías-Candia
authors: Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
authors: Nady
authors: N
authors: Braidy
authors: Laboratorio de Biología Celular y Molecular, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile.
authors: Juan M
authors: JM
authors: Zolezzi
authors: Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Centro de Envejecimiento y Regeneración (CARE), Departamento de Biología Celular y Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile; Centro de Excelencia en Biomedicina de Magallanes (CEBIMA), Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile. Electronic address: ninestrosa@bio.puc.cl.
authors: Nibaldo C
authors: NC
authors: Inestrosa
mesh_terms: D021581:Active Transport, Cell Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D019063:Tenascin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D019063:Tenascin; C120530:teneurin-1; C000594509:teneurin-C terminal associated peptide