@article{ThangarajSelvarajFrankBenderetal.2012, author = {Thangaraj Selvaraj, Bhuvaneish and Frank, Nicolas and Bender, Florian L. P. and Asan, Esther and Sendtner, Michael}, title = {Local axonal function of STAT3 rescues axon degeneration in the pmn model of motoneuron disease}, series = {The Journal of Cell Biology}, volume = {199}, journal = {The Journal of Cell Biology}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1083/jcb.201203109}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-154675}, pages = {437 -- 451}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Axonal maintenance, plasticity, and regeneration are influenced by signals from neighboring cells, in particular Schwann cells of the peripheral nervous system. Schwann cells produce neurotrophic factors, but the mechanisms by which ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and other neurotrophic molecules modify the axonal cytoskeleton are not well understood. In this paper, we show that activated signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3), an intracellular mediator of the effects of CNTF and other neurotrophic cytokines, acts locally in axons of motoneurons to modify the tubulin cytoskeleton. Specifically, we show that activated STAT3 interacted with stathmin and inhibited its microtubule-destabilizing activity. Thus, ectopic CNTF-mediated activation of STAT3 restored axon elongation and maintenance in motoneurons from progressive motor neuronopathy mutant mice, a mouse model of motoneuron disease. This mechanism could also be relevant for other neurodegenerative diseases and provide a target for new therapies for axonal degeneration.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Frank2015, author = {Frank, Nicolas Clemens}, title = {Lokale axonale Wirkungen der CNTF-STAT3 Signalkaskade in Motoneuronen der pmn Maus - einem Mausmodel f{\"u}r die Amyotrophe Lateralsklerose}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121065}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2015}, abstract = {1. Zusammenfassung W{\"a}hrend der Embryogenese und nach Verletzungen von Nerven regulieren neurotrophe Faktoren Signalwege f{\"u}r Apoptose, Differenzierung, Wachstum und Regeneration von Neuronen. In vivo Experimente an neugeborenen Nagern haben gezeigt, dass der Verlust von Motoneuronen nach peripherer Nervenl{\"a}sion durch die Behandlung mit GDNF, BDNF, und CNTF reduziert werden kann In der pmn-Mausmutante, einem Modell f{\"u}r die Amyotrophe Lateralsklerose, f{\"u}hrt die Gabe von CNTF, nicht aber von GDNF zu einem verz{\"o}gerten Krankheitsbeginn und einem verlangsamten Fortschreiten der Motoneuronendegeneration. Ausl{\"o}ser der Motoneuronendegeneration in der pmn-Maus ist eine Mutation im Tubulin spezifischen Chaperon E (Tbce) Gen, das f{\"u}r eines von f{\"u}nf Tubulin spezifischen Chaperonen (TBCA-TBCE) kodiert und an der Bildung von -Tubulinheterodimeren beteiligt ist. Diese Arbeit sollte dazu beitragen, die CNTF-induzierten Signalwege zu entschl{\"u}sseln, die sich lindernd auf den progredienten Verlauf der Motoneuronendegeneration in der pmn-Maus auswirken. Prim{\"a}re pmn mutierte Motoneurone zeigen ein reduziertes Axonwachstum und eine erh{\"o}hte Anzahl axonaler Schwellungen mit einer anomalen H{\"a}ufung von Mitochondrien - ein fr{\"u}hes Erkennungsmerkmal bei ALS-Patienten. Die Applikation von CNTF nicht aber von BDNF oder GDNF, kann in vitro die beobachteten Wachstumsdefekte und das bidirektionale axonale Transportdefizit in pmn mutierten Motoneurone verhindern. Aus {\"a}lteren Untersuchungen war bekannt, dass CNTF {\"u}ber den dreiteiligen transmembranen Rezeptorkomplex, bestehend aus CNTFR, LIFR und gp130, Januskinasen aktiviert, die STAT3 an Tyrosin 705 phosphorylieren (pSTAT3Y705). Ich konnte beobachten, dass axonales fluoreszenzmarkiertes pSTAT3Y705 nach CNTF-Gabe nicht retrograd in den Nukleus transportiert wird. Stattdessen f{\"u}hrt die CNTF-induzierte Phosphorylierung von STAT3 an Tyrosin 705 zu einer transkriptionsunabh{\"a}ngigen lokalen Reaktion im Axon. Diese pSTAT3Y705 abh{\"a}ngige Reaktion ist notwendig und ausreichend, um das reduzierte Axonwachstum pmn mutierter Motoneurone zu beheben. Wie die Kombination einer CNTF Behandlung mit dem shRNA vermittelten knock-down von Stathmin in pmn mutierten Motoneuronen zeigt, zielt die CNTF-STAT3 Signalkaskade auf die Stabilisierung axonaler Mikrotubuli ab und wirkt sich positiv auf die anterograde und retrograde Mobilit{\"a}t von axonalen Mitochondrien aus. Interessanter Weise konnte ich außerdem feststellen, dass eine akute Gabe von CNTF das mitochondriale Membranpotential in Axonen prim{\"a}rer pmn mutierter und wildtypischer Motoneurone erh{\"o}ht und einen Anstieg von ATP ausl{\"o}st. Meine Beobachtungen legen nahe, dass CNTF unerwarteter Weise auch eine transiente Phosphorylierung an STAT3 Serin 727 (pSTAT3S727) ausl{\"o}st, die zur anschließenden Translokation von pSTAT3S727 in Mitochondrien f{\"u}hrt. Diese Ergebnisse zeigen, dass STAT3 mehrere lokale Ziele im Axon besitzt, n{\"a}mlich axonale Mikrotubuli und Mitochondrien.}, subject = {Motoneuron}, language = {de} } @article{LauruschkatEtterSchnacketal.2021, author = {Lauruschkat, Chris D. and Etter, Sonja and Schnack, Elisabeth and Ebel, Frank and Sch{\"a}uble, Sascha and Page, Lukas and R{\"u}mens, Dana and Dragan, Mariola and Schlegel, Nicolas and Panagiotou, Gianni and Kniemeyer, Olaf and Brakhage, Axel A. and Einsele, Hermann and Wurster, Sebastian and Loeffler, Juergen}, title = {Chronic occupational mold exposure drives expansion of Aspergillus-reactive type 1 and type 2 T-helper cell responses}, series = {Journal of Fungi}, volume = {7}, journal = {Journal of Fungi}, number = {9}, issn = {2309-608X}, doi = {10.3390/jof7090698}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245202}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Occupational mold exposure can lead to Aspergillus-associated allergic diseases including asthma and hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Elevated IL-17 levels or disbalanced T-helper (Th) cell expansion were previously linked to Aspergillus-associated allergic diseases, whereas alterations to the Th cell repertoire in healthy occupationally exposed subjects are scarcely studied. Therefore, we employed functional immunoassays to compare Th cell responses to A. fumigatus antigens in organic farmers, a cohort frequently exposed to environmental molds, and non-occupationally exposed controls. Organic farmers harbored significantly higher A. fumigatus-specific Th-cell frequencies than controls, with comparable expansion of Th1- and Th2-cell frequencies but only slightly elevated Th17-cell frequencies. Accordingly, Aspergillus antigen-induced Th1 and Th2 cytokine levels were strongly elevated, whereas induction of IL-17A was minimal. Additionally, increased levels of some innate immune cell-derived cytokines were found in samples from organic farmers. Antigen-induced cytokine release combined with Aspergillus-specific Th-cell frequencies resulted in high classification accuracy between organic farmers and controls. Aspf22, CatB, and CipC elicited the strongest differences in Th1 and Th2 responses between the two cohorts, suggesting these antigens as potential candidates for future bio-effect monitoring approaches. Overall, we found that occupationally exposed agricultural workers display a largely balanced co-expansion of Th1 and Th2 immunity with only minor changes in Th17 responses.}, language = {en} } @article{HudsonNewboldContuetal.2014, author = {Hudson, Lawrence N. and Newbold, Tim and Contu, Sara and Hill, Samantha L. L. and Lysenko, Igor and De Palma, Adriana and Phillips, Helen R. P. and Senior, Rebecca A. and Bennett, Dominic J. and Booth, Hollie and Choimes, Argyrios and Correia, David L. P. and Day, Julie and Echeverria-Londono, Susy and Garon, Morgan and Harrison, Michelle L. K. and Ingram, Daniel J. and Jung, Martin and Kemp, Victoria and Kirkpatrick, Lucinda and Martin, Callum D. and Pan, Yuan and White, Hannah J. and Aben, Job and Abrahamczyk, Stefan and Adum, Gilbert B. and Aguilar-Barquero, Virginia and Aizen, Marcelo and Ancrenaz, Marc and Arbelaez-Cortes, Enrique and Armbrecht, Inge and Azhar, Badrul and Azpiroz, Adrian B. and Baeten, Lander and B{\´a}ldi, Andr{\´a}s and Banks, John E. and Barlow, Jos and Bat{\´a}ry, P{\´e}ter and Bates, Adam J. and Bayne, Erin M. and Beja, Pedro and Berg, Ake and Berry, Nicholas J. and Bicknell, Jake E. and Bihn, Jochen H. and B{\"o}hning-Gaese, Katrin and Boekhout, Teun and Boutin, Celine and Bouyer, Jeremy and Brearley, Francis Q. and Brito, Isabel and Brunet, J{\"o}rg and Buczkowski, Grzegorz and Buscardo, Erika and Cabra-Garcia, Jimmy and Calvino-Cancela, Maria and Cameron, Sydney A. and Cancello, Eliana M. and Carrijo, Tiago F. and Carvalho, Anelena L. and Castro, Helena and Castro-Luna, Alejandro A. and Cerda, Rolando and Cerezo, Alexis and Chauvat, Matthieu and Clarke, Frank M. and Cleary, Daniel F. R. and Connop, Stuart P. and D'Aniello, Biagio and da Silva, Pedro Giovani and Darvill, Ben and Dauber, Jens and Dejean, Alain and Diek{\"o}tter, Tim and Dominguez-Haydar, Yamileth and Dormann, Carsten F. and Dumont, Bertrand and Dures, Simon G. and Dynesius, Mats and Edenius, Lars and Elek, Zolt{\´a}n and Entling, Martin H. and Farwig, Nina and Fayle, Tom M. and Felicioli, Antonio and Felton, Annika M. and Ficetola, Gentile F. and Filgueiras, Bruno K. C. and Fonte, Steve J. and Fraser, Lauchlan H. and Fukuda, Daisuke and Furlani, Dario and Ganzhorn, J{\"o}rg U. and Garden, Jenni G. and Gheler-Costa, Carla and Giordani, Paolo and Giordano, Simonetta and Gottschalk, Marco S. and Goulson, Dave and Gove, Aaron D. and Grogan, James and Hanley, Mick E. and Hanson, Thor and Hashim, Nor R. and Hawes, Joseph E. and H{\´e}bert, Christian and Helden, Alvin J. and Henden, John-Andr{\´e} and Hern{\´a}ndez, Lionel and Herzog, Felix and Higuera-Diaz, Diego and Hilje, Branko and Horgan, Finbarr G. and Horv{\´a}th, Roland and Hylander, Kristoffer and Horv{\´a}th, Roland and Isaacs-Cubides, Paola and Ishitani, Mashiro and Jacobs, Carmen T. and Jaramillo, Victor J. and Jauker, Birgit and Jonsell, Matts and Jung, Thomas S. and Kapoor, Vena and Kati, Vassiliki and Katovai, Eric and Kessler, Michael and Knop, Eva and Kolb, Annette and K{\"o}r{\"o}si, {\`A}d{\´a}m and Lachat, Thibault and Lantschner, Victoria and Le F{\´e}on, Violette and LeBuhn, Gretchen and L{\´e}gar{\´e}, Jean-Philippe and Letcher, Susan G. and Littlewood, Nick A. and L{\´o}pez-Quintero, Carlos A. and Louhaichi, Mounir and L{\"o}vei, Gabor L. and Lucas-Borja, Manuel Esteban and Luja, Victor H. and Maeto, Kaoru and Magura, Tibor and Mallari, Neil Aldrin and Marin-Spiotta, Erika and Marhall, E. J. P. and Mart{\´i}nez, Eliana and Mayfield, Margaret M. and Mikusinski, Gregorz and Milder, Jeffery C. and Miller, James R. and Morales, Carolina L. and Muchane, Mary N. and Muchane, Muchai and Naidoo, Robin and Nakamura, Akihiro and Naoe, Shoji and Nates-Parra, Guiomar and Navarerete Gutierrez, Dario A. and Neuschulz, Eike L. and Noreika, Norbertas and Norfolk, Olivia and Noriega, Jorge Ari and N{\"o}ske, Nicole M. and O'Dea, Niall and Oduro, William and Ofori-Boateng, Caleb and Oke, Chris O. and Osgathorpe, Lynne M. and Paritsis, Juan and Parrah, Alejandro and Pelegrin, Nicol{\´a}s and Peres, Carlos A. and Persson, Anna S. and Petanidou, Theodora and Phalan, Ben and Philips, T. Keith and Poveda, Katja and Power, Eileen F. and Presley, Steven J. and Proen{\c{c}}a, V{\^a}nia and Quaranta, Marino and Quintero, Carolina and Redpath-Downing, Nicola A. and Reid, J. Leighton and Reis, Yana T. and Ribeiro, Danilo B. and Richardson, Barbara A. and Richardson, Michael J. and Robles, Carolina A. and R{\"o}mbke, J{\"o}rg and Romero-Duque, Luz Piedad and Rosselli, Loreta and Rossiter, Stephen J. and Roulston, T'ai H. and Rousseau, Laurent and Sadler, Jonathan P. and S{\´a}fi{\´a}n, Szbolcs and Salda{\~n}a-V{\´a}squez, Romeo A. and Samneg{\aa}rd, Ulrika and Sch{\"u}epp, Christof and Schweiger, Oliver and Sedlock, Jodi L. and Shahabuddin, Ghazala and Sheil, Douglas and Silva, Fernando A. B. and Slade, Eleanor and Smith-Pardo, Allan H. and Sodhi, Navjot S. and Somarriba, Eduardo J. and Sosa, Ram{\´o}n A. and Stout, Jane C. and Struebig, Matthew J. and Sung, Yik-Hei and Threlfall, Caragh G. and Tonietto, Rebecca and T{\´o}thm{\´e}r{\´e}sz, B{\´e}la and Tscharntke, Teja and Turner, Edgar C. and Tylianakis, Jason M. and Vanbergen, Adam J. and Vassilev, Kiril and Verboven, Hans A. F. and Vergara, Carlos H. and Vergara, Pablo M. and Verhulst, Jort and Walker, Tony R. and Wang, Yanping and Watling, James I. and Wells, Konstans and Williams, Christopher D. and Willig, Michael R. and Woinarski, John C. Z. and Wolf, Jan H. D. and Woodcock, Ben A. and Yu, Douglas W. and Zailsev, Andreys and Collen, Ben and Ewers, Rob M. and Mace, Georgina M. and Purves, Drew W. and Scharlemann, J{\"o}rn P. W. and Pervis, Andy}, title = {The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts}, series = {Ecology and Evolution}, volume = {4}, journal = {Ecology and Evolution}, number = {24}, doi = {10.1002/ece3.1303}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-114425}, pages = {4701 - 4735}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1\% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1\% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - ). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.}, language = {en} } @article{LauruschkatPageWhiteetal.2021, author = {Lauruschkat, Chris D. and Page, Lukas and White, P. Lewis and Etter, Sonja and Davies, Helen E. and Duckers, Jamie and Ebel, Frank and Schnack, Elisabeth and Backx, Matthijs and Dragan, Mariola and Schlegel, Nicolas and Kniemeyer, Olaf and Brakhage, Axel A. and Einsele, Hermann and Loeffler, Juergen and Wurster, Sebastian}, title = {Development of a simple and robust whole blood assay with dual co-stimulation to quantify the release of T-cellular signature cytokines in response to Aspergillus fumigatus antigens}, series = {Journal of Fungi}, volume = {7}, journal = {Journal of Fungi}, number = {6}, issn = {2309-608X}, doi = {10.3390/jof7060462}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-241025}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Deeper understanding of mold-induced cytokine signatures could promote advances in the diagnosis and treatment of invasive mycoses and mold-associated hypersensitivity syndromes. Currently, most T-cellular immunoassays in medical mycology require the isolation of mononuclear cells and have limited robustness and practicability, hampering their broader applicability in clinical practice. Therefore, we developed a simple, cost-efficient whole blood (WB) assay with dual α-CD28 and α-CD49d co-stimulation to quantify cytokine secretion in response to Aspergillus fumigatus antigens. Dual co-stimulation strongly enhanced A. fumigatus-induced release of T-cellular signature cytokines detectable by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or a multiplex cytokine assay. Furthermore, T-cell-dependent activation and cytokine response of innate immune cells was captured by the assay. The protocol consistently showed little technical variation and high robustness to pre-analytic delays of up to 8 h. Stimulation with an A. fumigatus lysate elicited at least 7-fold greater median concentrations of key T-helper cell signature cytokines, including IL-17 and the type 2 T-helper cell cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 in WB samples from patients with Aspergillus-associated lung pathologies versus patients with non-mold-related lung diseases, suggesting high discriminatory power of the assay. These results position WB-ELISA with dual co-stimulation as a simple, accurate, and robust immunoassay for translational applications, encouraging further evaluation as a platform to monitor host immunity to opportunistic pathogens.}, language = {en} } @article{SeegersZabelGrueteretal.2015, author = {Seegers, Joachim and Zabel, Markus and Gr{\"u}ter, Timo and Ammermann, Antje and Weber-Kr{\"u}ger, Mark and Edelmann, Frank and Gelbrich, G{\"o}tz and Binder, Lutz and Herrmann-Lingen, Christoph and Gr{\"o}schel, Klaus and Hasenfuß, Gerd and Feltgen, Nicolas and Pieske, Burkert and Wachter, Rolf}, title = {Natriuretic peptides for the detection of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation}, series = {Open Heart}, volume = {2}, journal = {Open Heart}, number = {e000182}, doi = {10.1136/openhrt-2014-000182}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-149939}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Background and purpose: Silent atrial fibrillation (AF) and tachycardia (AT) are considered precursors of ischaemic stroke. Therefore, detection of paroxysmal atrial rhythm disorders is highly relevant, but is clinically challenging. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of natriuretic peptide levels in the detection of paroxysmal AT/AF in a pilot study. Methods: Natriuretic peptide levels were analysed in two independent patient cohorts (162 patients with arterial hypertension or other cardiovascular risk factors and 82 patients with retinal vessel disease). N-terminal-pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and BNP were measured before the start of a 7-day Holter monitoring period carefully screened for AT/AF. Results: 244 patients were included; 16 had paroxysmal AT/AF. After excluding patients with a history of AT/AF (n=5), 14 patients had newly diagnosed AT/AF (5.8\%) NT-proBNP and BNP levels were higher in patients with paroxysmal AT/AF in both cohorts: (1) 154.4 (IQR 41.7; 303.6) versus 52.8 (30.4; 178.0) pg/mL and 70.0 (31.9; 142.4) versus 43.9 (16.3; 95.2) and (2) 216.9 (201.4; 277.1) versus 90.8 (42.3-141.7) and 96.0 (54.7; 108.2) versus 29.1 (12.0; 58.1). For the detection of AT/AF episodes, NT-proBNP and BNP had an area under the curve in receiver operating characteristic analysis of 0.76 (95\% CI, 0.64 to 0.88; p=0.002) and 0.75 (0.61 to 0.89; p=0.004), respectively. Conclusions: NT-proBNP and BNP levels are elevated in patients with silent AT/AF as compared with sinus rhythm. Thus, screening for undiagnosed paroxysmal AF using natriuretic peptide level initiated Holter monitoring may be a useful strategy in prevention of stroke or systemic embolism.}, language = {en} } @article{ReinhardSchubertBertolinietal.2022, author = {Reinhard, Nils and Schubert, Frank K. and Bertolini, Enrico and Hagedorn, Nicolas and Manoli, Giulia and Sekiguchi, Manabu and Yoshii, Taishi and Rieger, Dirk and Helfrich-F{\"o}rster, Charlotte}, title = {The neuronal circuit of the dorsal circadian clock neurons in Drosophila melanogaster}, series = {Frontiers in Physiology}, volume = {13}, journal = {Frontiers in Physiology}, issn = {1664-042X}, doi = {10.3389/fphys.2022.886432}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-272527}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Drosophila's dorsal clock neurons (DNs) consist of four clusters (DN1as, DN1ps, DN2s, and DN3s) that largely differ in size. While the DN1as and the DN2s encompass only two neurons, the DN1ps consist of ∼15 neurons, and the DN3s comprise ∼40 neurons per brain hemisphere. In comparison to the well-characterized lateral clock neurons (LNs), the neuroanatomy and function of the DNs are still not clear. Over the past decade, numerous studies have addressed their role in the fly's circadian system, leading to several sometimes divergent results. Nonetheless, these studies agreed that the DNs are important to fine-tune activity under light and temperature cycles and play essential roles in linking the output from the LNs to downstream neurons that control sleep and metabolism. Here, we used the Flybow system, specific split-GAL4 lines, trans-Tango, and the recently published fly connectome (called hemibrain) to describe the morphology of the DNs in greater detail, including their synaptic connections to other clock and non-clock neurons. We show that some DN groups are largely heterogenous. While certain DNs are strongly connected with the LNs, others are mainly output neurons that signal to circuits downstream of the clock. Among the latter are mushroom body neurons, central complex neurons, tubercle bulb neurons, neurosecretory cells in the pars intercerebralis, and other still unidentified partners. This heterogeneity of the DNs may explain some of the conflicting results previously found about their functionality. Most importantly, we identify two putative novel communication centers of the clock network: one fiber bundle in the superior lateral protocerebrum running toward the anterior optic tubercle and one fiber hub in the posterior lateral protocerebrum. Both are invaded by several DNs and LNs and might play an instrumental role in the clock network.}, language = {en} }