Targeted disruption of dual leucine zipper kinase and leucine zipper kinase promotes neuronal survival in a model of diffuse traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of CNS neurodegeneration and has no disease-altering therapies. It is commonly associated with a specific type of biomechanical disruption of the axon called traumatic axonal injury (TAI), which often leads to axonal and sometimes perikaryal degeneration of CNS neurons. We have previously used genome-scale, arrayed RNA interference-based screens in primary mouse retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) to identify a pair of related kinases, dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK) and leucine zipper kinase (LZK) that are key mediators of cell death in response to simple axotomy. Moreover, we showed that DLK and LZK are the major upstream triggers for JUN N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling following total axonal transection. However, the degree to which DLK/LZK are involved in TAI/TBI is unknown.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 27, 2019
Source ID
10.1186/s13024-019-0345-1

Entities

People

  • Amit K. Patel
  • Athanasios S. Alexandris
  • Byung-jin Kim
  • Derek S Welsbie
  • Donald J. Zack
  • Jiwon Ryu
  • Leyan Xu
  • Mohamed Lehar
  • Nicholas Stewart
  • Nikolaos K. Ziogas
  • Vassilis E. Koliatsos
  • Yusong Ge

Organizations

  • BrightFocus Foundation
  • E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation for the Blind
  • National Eye Institute
  • Research to Prevent Blindness
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Cellular and Molecular Pathways of Apoptosis.
  • Molecular Genetics
  • Neuroscience