Researchers at University of Alabama target neuroblastoma.

"Recent evidence Suggests that the transcriptional coactivator peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1 alpha) is involved in the pathology of Huntington's Disease (HD). While animals lacking PGC-1 alpha express lower levels of genes involved in antioxidant defense and oxidative phosphorylation in the brain, little is known about other targets for PGC-1 alpha in neuronal cells and whether there are ways to pharmacologically target PGC-1 alpha in neurons," scientists writing in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications report (see also Enzyme Research).

"Here, PGC-1 alpha overexpression in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells upregulated expression of genes involved in mitochondrial function, glucose transport, fatty acid metabolism, and synaptic function. Overexpression also decreased vulnerability to hydrogen peroxide-induced cell death and caspase 3 activation. Treatment of cells with the histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi's) trichostatin A and valproic acid upregulated PGC-1 alpha. and glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4). These results suggest that PGC-1 alpha regulates Multiple pathways in neurons and that HDACi's may be good candidates to target PGC-1 alpha and GLUT4 in HD and other neurological disorders," wrote R.M. Cowell and colleagues, ...