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- Alsehli, Ahmed
(författare)
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The role of HMG-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) and statin medication in the Central Nervous System : Cognitive Functions, Metabolism, Feeding and Sleep Behaviour
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Millions of people are currently on statin medications (HMGCR inhibitors) to prevent cardiovascular diseases. Despite considerable central nervous system expression, little is known about HMGCR function in the brain. In Paper I, we used Drosophila and rodent models and found that inhibiting Hmgcr expression in the insulin-producing cells of the Drosophila hypothalamus equivalent, known as the pars intercerebralis (PI), throughout development, significantly reduces the expression of Insulin–like peptides 2 and 3 (ILP2 and ILP3), severely decreasing insulin signalling. This reduction causes decreased body size, hyperglycemia, increased lipid storage, and hyperphagia. We also discovered that Farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (Fpps), an enzyme downstream of Hmgcr in the mevalonate pathway, is required for ILP2 expression in the PI. In rodents, acute inhibition of hypothalamic Hmgcr stimulates food intake as well. Furthermore, in rats, we found two regions within the hypothalamus that had significantly increased neural activity, the paraventricular nucleus and arcuate nucleus, which are known to regulate food intake. In Paper II, we explored the effects of statins on cognition and performed an observational study on a population-based sample from the UK Biobank. Cognitive performance in terms of reaction time, working memory and fluid intelligence was analysed at baseline and two follow-ups. Subjects were classified depending on age (up to 65 and over 65 years). The effect of statin use differed between the two age groups, with a beneficial effect on reaction time in older persons and fluid intelligence in both age groups, and a negative effect on working memory in younger subjects. In Paper III, we examined association of single nucleotide polymorphisms within the HMGCR gene, rs17238484 and rs12916, with self-reported insomnia symptoms. We found that statin users are associated with a higher risk for self-reported insomnia. The HMGCR genetic variants were also associated with self-reported insomnia, but in different manner. Carriers the rs12916-T risk allele had a protective effect from insomnia symptoms. No associations were found for either statin takers or carriers of these HGCMR risk alleles and late evening chronotype. The increased risk of insomnia noted with statins is partially explained by a mechanism that might be independent of HMGCR inhibition. In Paper IV, we discovered a novel role for Hmgcr in sleep regulation in Drosophila, where lacking of pan-neuronal Hmgcr expression causes sleep-promoting effects. We also found that loss of Hmgcr expression specifically in the PI insulin-producing cells, recapitulates the effect of pan-neuronal Hmgcr inhibition. Conversely, inhibiting Hmgcr in only six PI DH44 expressing neurons has the opposite effect on sleep, increasing sleep latency and decreasing sleep duration. This bi-functional property of Hmgcr in the fly brain underlies its importance in sleep regulation. Furthermore, loss of Hmgcr showed no effect on circadian rhythm, suggesting that Hmgcr regulates sleep by pathways distinct from the circadian clock.
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- Alsiö, Johan
(författare)
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From Food Preference to Craving : Behavioural Traits and Molecular Mechanisms
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Preference for palatable and energy-dense foods may be a risk factor for body weight gain and has both genetic and environmental components. Once obesity develops in an individual, weight loss is difficult to achieve. Indeed, obesity is often characterized by repeated attempts to reduce the overconsumption of energy-dense foods, followed by food craving and relapse to overconsumption. Relapse and loss of control over intake are observed also in drug addicts, and it has been shown that obesity and drug addiction not only share behavioural features but also neural circuitry, e.g. the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. In this thesis, we sought to investigate the mechanisms related to food preferences and craving using animal models previously used in addiction research. The risk of gaining weight may implicate behavioural traits and emotional states. We showed in rats that a risk-taking behavioural profile was associated both with increased preference for a high-fat (HF) diet and with increased motivational response to a palatable high-sucrose (HS) diet. Hypothalamic urocortin 2 expression was associated with the preference for the HF diet. We also tested the hypothesis that consumption of HS and HF diets separately or provided simultaneously (HFHS) affect anxiety-like behaviour and locomotion. Furthermore, we showed that withdrawal from HFHS food affects diet-induced obesity-prone (OP) and obesity-resistant (OR) animals differently. OP animals had increased motivation (craving) for HS food pellets as measured by the operant self-administration technique during withdrawal. Dopamine receptor expression in the striatum differed between OP and OR animals both at access to HFHS and during withdrawal. This strongly implicates dopaminergic signaling in the OP phenotype. In humans, food preferences may be monitored using questionnaires. We analyzed food preference data from parents of preschool children, and identified an inverse association of parental preference for high-fat high-protein food and overweight in children. In conclusion, we have employed animal models previously used in the addiction field to identify molecular mechanisms related both to food preference and vulnerability to obesity, and to food craving associated with withdrawal from palatable food. These findings add to our current understanding of obesity.
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| 7. |
- Alsiö, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Locomotor adaptation and elevated expression of reward-relevant genes following free-choice high-fat diet exposure
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Obesity may be induced in rodents by long-term access to dietary fat. Such treatment has been reported to have behavioural effects including reduced anxiety-like behaviour and diminished operant responding for psychostimulants. It is unclear whether such effects are secondary to metabolic changes due to excess body weight, or to the extended access to palatable food reward. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a short palatable diet exposure (10 days) on performance in the open field test of novelty-induced locomotion and anxiety-like behaviour in rats. We subjected rats to a free-choice high-fat or high-sugar diet, or both, for a period of 10 days. Increased caloric intake was observed in all groups but body weight at Day 10 did not differ from chow-fed controls. We report that consumption of the free-choice high-fat diets was associated with higher novelty-induced activity and reduced anxiety-like behaviour in the open field test. In addition, we used RT-PCR to show that the high-fat group had 39% higher expression of mu opioid receptor in the lateral hypothalamus, and that tyrosine hydroxylase expression was elevated more than two-fold in the ventral tegmental area of rats with access to both high-fat and high-sugar. In conclusion, these results show that subchronic exposure to a free-choice high-fat diet induces behavioural adaptations such as elevated locomotor activity and attenuated experimental anxiety. The changes observed in gene expression related to reward after high-fat diet exposure indicate that these behavioural adaptations are related to reward function.
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- Alsiö, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Parental food preferences are associated with body weight disturbance in preschool children
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Parental factors such as stress induced by parenting and certain food preferences are suspected to promote obesity in preschool children. In this context, especially the intake of dietary fat is assumed to play a key role for the children’s risk to become obese. Here we analyzed eating behaviors in parents of 3-year-olds in order to identify parental traits that are associated with body weight in these children. We also tested for possible interactions between psychosocial factors such as stress induced by parenting and parental food cravings. Questionnaires were sent out to 1300 parents whose children’s body weight was measured during ambulatory medical care visits (parental response rate 70.4%). Using the Food Craving Inventory scale allowed examining parental preferences for the following food categories: high-fat/high-protein, sweets, carbohydrates, and fast food. Psychosocial stress caused by parenting was assessed with the Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ). Our main finding was that the parental preference for foods rich in high-fat/high-protein nutrients displayed an inverse U-shaped function to the children’s body weight such that low preference for this category was associated with both overweight and underweight in offspring. Parental preference for sweet-foods were associated with higher odds for developing overweight in early childhood. The level of parental food preferences was significantly modulated by stress induced by parenting. In conclusion, we show that parental food preference is affected by stress and is associated with the body weight status of their children. The results suggest that parental intake of high-fat/high-protein foods protects against weight disturbances in preschool children.
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- Attwood, Misty M.
(författare)
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Membrane-bound proteins : Characterization, evolution, and functional analysis
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Alpha-helical transmembrane proteins are important components of many essential cell processes including signal transduction, transport of molecules across membranes, protein and membrane trafficking, and structural and adhesion activities, amongst others. Their involvement in critical networks makes them the focus of interest in investigating disease pathways, as candidate drug targets, and in evolutionary analyses to identify homologous protein families and possible functional activities. Transmembrane (TM) proteins can be categorized into major groups based the same gross structure, i.e., the number of transmembrane helices, which are often correlated with specific functional activities, for example as receptors or transporters. The focus of this thesis was to analyze the evolution of the membrane proteome from the last holozoan common ancestor (LHCA) through metazoans to garner insight into the fundamental functional clusters that underlie metazoan diversity and innovation. Twenty-four eukaryotic proteomes were analyzed, with results showing more than 70% of metazoan transmembrane protein families have a pre-metazoan origin. In concert with that, we characterized the previously unstudied groups of human proteins with three, four, and five membrane-spanning regions (3TM, 4TM, and 5TM) and analyzed their functional activities, involvement in disease pathways, and unique characteristics. Combined, we manually curated and classified nearly 11% of the human transmembrane proteome with these three studies. The 3TM data set included 152 proteins, with nearly 45% that localize specifically to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and are involved in membrane biosynthesis and lipid biogenesis, proteins trafficking, catabolic processes, and signal transduction due to the large ionotropic glutamate receptor family. The 373 proteins identified in the 4TM data set are predominantly involved in transport activities, as well as cell communication and adhesion, and function as structural elements. The compact 5TM data set includes 58 proteins that engage in localization and transport activities, such as protein targeting, membrane trafficking, and vesicle transport. Notably, ~60% are identified as cancer prognostic markers that are associated with clinical outcomes of different tumour types. This thesis investigates the evolutionary origins of the human transmembrane proteome, characterizes formerly dark areas of the membrane proteome, and extends the fundamental knowledge of transmembrane proteins.
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- Bjarnadóttir, Þóra Kristín, 1978-
(författare)
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The Gene Repertoire of G protein-coupled Receptors : New Genes, Phylogeny, and Evolution
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is one of the largest protein families of mammalian genomes and can be divided into five main families; Glutamate, Rhodopsin, Adhesion, Frizzled, and Secretin. GPCRs participate in most major physiological functions, contributing to the fact that they are important targets in drug discovery. In paper I we mined the human and mouse genomes for new Adhesion GPCR genes. We found two new human genes (GPR133 and GPR144) and 17 mouse Adhesion genes, bringing the number up to 33 human and 31 mouse genes. In paper II we describe 53 new splice variants for human Adhesion receptors supported by expressed sequence tags (EST) data. 29 of these variants seem to code for functional proteins, several of which lack one or more functional domains in the N-termini. Lack of certain domains is likely to affect ligand binding or interaction with other proteins. Paper III describes the Glutamate GPCR in human, mouse, Fugu, and zebrafish. We gathered a total of 22 human, 79 mouse, 30 Fugu, and 32 zebrafish sequences and grouped these into eight clans using phylogenetic methods. The report provides an overview of the expansion or deletions among the different branches of the Glutamate receptor family. Paper IV focuses on the trace amine (TA) clan of Rhodopsin GPCRs. We identified 18 new rodent genes, 57 zebrafish genes, and eight Fugu genes belonging to the clan. Chromosomal mapping together with phylogenetic relationships suggests that the family arose through several mechanisms involving tetraploidisation, block duplications, and local duplication events. Paper V provides a comprehensive dataset of the GPCR superfamily of human and mouse containing 495 mouse and 400 human non-olfactory GPCRs. Phylogenetic analyses showed that 329 of the receptors are found in one-to-one orthologous pairs, whereas other receptors may have originated from species-specific expansions.
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