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Identification of c‐Jun N‐Terminal Kinase as a Therapeutic Target for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
Author(s) -
YOSHIMURA KOICHI,
AOKI HIROKI,
IKEDA YASUHIRO,
FURUTANI AKIRA,
HAMANO KIMIKAZU,
MATSUZAKI MASUNORI
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1383.049
Subject(s) - abdominal aortic aneurysm , kinase , matrix metalloproteinase , extracellular matrix , transcriptome , identification (biology) , microbiology and biotechnology , c jun , cancer research , chemistry , biology , computational biology , gene , medicine , aneurysm , biochemistry , gene expression , transcription factor , surgery , botany
Despite the advances in molecular cell biology, identification of a therapeutic target in a given disease still poses a significant challenge. Here we report a strategy for identification of the therapeutic target in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We screened for various signaling molecules in human AAA samples and identified c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) as a prominently activated molecule. The JNK pathway‐oriented transcriptome analyses revealed that activation of JNK leads to enhancement of the activity of matrix metalloproteinases and, concurrently, suppression of the extracellular matrix biosynthesis, suggesting that JNK may represent a novel therapeutic target in AAA.