JNK Signaling Pathway

The disease groups can be divided into the following main areas: neurological, coronary, hepatobiliary, and respiratory diseases; and autoimmune, inflammatory, and cancer conditions. Remarkably, many of these conditions have mirrored the data from the JNK knockout animals, indicating the high level of consistency between the human and mouse systems. Among the major disease groups in which JNK activity is affected, at least four major tissues have been repeatedly implicated. They include neuronal, cardiac, hepatobiliary, and respiratory tissues. Among the neuronal diseases, JNK has been shown to be activated in neurons of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), stroke, polyglutamine disease, Pick’s disease, corticobasal degeneration, dementia, argyrophilic grain disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, to name a few. In cardiac conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, and abdominal aortic aneurysm, aortic wall samples, adipose tissues around the heart, and serum from patients displayed elevated JNK activity.