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Exploring the Two Herb Combination Strategy to Treat Injured PC12 Cells
Published on: November 18, 2022
Drugs of abuse induce apoptotic features in PC12 cells
M T Oliveira1, A C Rego, T R A Macedo
1Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra, University of Coimbra, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal.
Abstract:
Drugs of abuse induce the release of dopamine in the central nervous system, particularly in the mesolimbic-mesocortical pathway. As dopamine may act as a neurotoxin, in this study, we analyzed the effects of the drugs of abuse, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamine, on the neurodegeneration of PC12 cells, a dopaminergic cell line, by evaluating the activity of caspase-3 and mitochondrial cytochrome c release. All the drugs were shown to induce caspase-3 activation, similarly to staurosporine, a classical inducer of apoptotic cell death. Furthermore, like staurosporine, the drugs of abuse induced a decrease in mitochondrial cytochrome c content, suggesting the involvement of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.
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