Office of Research and Development

Home

 

Departments

 

Search

 

Department · Name/Training · Academic Degrees · Contact Information · Grant Support · Publications · Previous Graduate Students · Current Research Projects · Specialized Lab/Clinical Research Resources · Back to Department List

Internal Medicine

Terrence M. Donohue, Jr., Ph.D.

Back to Top

ACADEMIC DEGREES:

Undergraduate: University (formerly College) of St. Thomas B.A., Biology
Graduate School: Marquette University M.S. Biology
Graduate School: University of Nebraska Medical Center
Postdoctoral Training: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Back to Top

Contact Name: Terrence M. Donohue, Jr., Ph.D.
Phone Number: 346-8800, ext 3556
Fax:               402-449-0604
e-mail:            tdonohue@unmc.edu

Back to Top

Source: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Total Funding: $588,141 & $741,360
Dates and duration: April, 1997 to March, 2000 ($588,141)
Aug. 2000 to July 2005 ($741,360)
Title: "Ethanol Effects on Proteolytic Systems in the Liver."
 Role: Principal Investigator

 

Source:

Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Research Funds (VA Merit Review)

Total Funding: $545,000
Dates and Duration:  Apr. 1, 2002 to March 31, 2006
Title: Proteolysis and Ethanol-Induced Oxidative Stress in Cultured Hepatoma Cells
Role: Principal Investigator

Back to Top

Koll M, Ahmed S, Mantle D, Donohue TM Cook EB, Palmer TN, Simanowski UA, Seitz HK, Peters TJ and Preedy VR.  Effects of Acute and Chronic Alcohol Treatment and Their Superimposition on Lysosomal, Cytoplasmic and Proteosomal Protease Activities in Rat Skeletal Muscle in vivo. Metabolism 51:97-104 (2002).

Chakkalakal DA, Novak JR, Fritz ED, Mollner TJ, McVicker DL, Lybarger DL, McGuire MH, Donohue TM.  Chronic Ethanol Consumption Results in Deficient Bone Repair in Rats.  Alcohol and Alcoholism 37: 13-20 (2002).

Donohue, TM. The Ubiquitin-Proteasome System and its Role in Ethanol-Induced Disorders. Addiction Biology 7: 15-28 (2002).

Haorah, J, McVicker, DL, Byrd, JC, MacDonald, RG, Donohue, TM. Chronic Ethanol Administration Decreases the Ligand Binding Properties and the Cellular Content of the Mannose-6-Phosphate/Insulin-like Growth Factor II Receptor in Rat Hepatocytes. Biochemical Pharmacology 63:1229-1239 (2002).

Haorah, J,  Stoner, J, Donohue, TM.  Ethanol Consumption Decreases the Synthesis of the Mannose 6-Phosphate/Insulin-Like Growth Factor II Receptor but Does not Decrease its Messneger RNA. Biochemical Pharmacology,  65: 637-648, 2003.

Osna, N, Clemens, DL, Donohue, TM.  Interferon Gamma Enhances Proteasome Activity in Recombinant Hep G2 Cells that Express Cytochrome P4502E1: Modulation by Ethanol. Biochemical Pharmacology (in press).

Donohue, TM and Osna, NA.  Role of Intracellular Proteolytic Systems in Alcohol-Induced Tissue Injury. Alcohol Research & Health 27: 317-324 (2003).

Brand, RM, Charron, AR, Dutton, L, Gavlik, TL, Nueller, C., Hamel, F.G., Chakkalakal, D, and Donohue, TM  The Effects of Chronic Alcohol Consumption on Dermal Penetration of Pesticides in Rats.  J. Toxicology and Environmental Health 67: 153-161 (2004).  

Casey, C., McVicker, B., Donohue, TM, McFarland, M., Wiegert, R., and Nanji, A.  Liver Asialoglycoprotein Receptor Levels Correlate with Severity of Alcoholic Liver Damage in Rats.  J Applied Physiol 96:76-80 (2004). 

Donohue, TM, Kharbanda, KK, Casey, CA, and Nanji, AA.  Decreased Proteasome Activity is Associated   with Increased Severity of Liver Pathhology  and Oxidative Stress in Experimental Alcoholic Liver Disease. Alcohol: Clin Exp Res. 28:1257-1263 (2004). 

Osna, NO, Haorah, J, Krutik, VM  and Donohue, TM  Peroxynitrite Alters The Catalytic Activity of Rodent Liver Proteasome in vitro and in vivo. Hepatology 40: 574-582 (2004). 

Haorah, J, Heilman, D, Diekman, C, Osna, N, Donohue, Jr. TM, Ghorpade, A, and Persidsky, Y.  Alcohol and HIV Decreease Proteaosme and Immunoproteasome Function in Macrophages: Implications for Impaired Immune Function During Disease. Cellular Immunology. 229: 139-148 (2004). 

Donohue, TM and French, S.W.  The Ubiquitin-Proteasome System in Alcohol-Induced Pathology in Comprehensive Handbook of Alcohol Related Pathology (V. Preedy, ed) Academic Press, Elsevier Science, London Chapter 80, pp 1027-1039 (2005). 

Donohue, TM, Osna, NA and Clemens, DL. Studies with Hep G2 Cells that Express the Two Major Ethanol Metabolizing Enzymes. Alcoholism: Clin Exp Res  29: 1726-1734, 2005. Chakkalakal DA, Novak JR, Fritz ED, Mollner TJ, McVicker DL, Garvin KL, McGuire MH and  

Donohue TM, Inhibition of bone repair in a rat model for chronic and excessive alcohol consumption. Alcohol  36: 201-214, 2005.

Osna NA, Clemens DL and Donohue TM, Jr., Ethanol metabolism alters interferon gamma signaling recombinant hepg2 cells. Hepatology 42: 1109-17, 2005.

Donohue TM, Osna NA and Clemens DL, Recombinant Hep G2 cells that express alcohol dehydrogenase and cytochrome P450 2E1 as a model of ethanol-elicited cytotoxicity. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 38: 92-101, 2006.

Back to Top

  • PREVIOUS GRADUATE STUDENTS/POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS (present location):

(1992-1994) Lawrence Born, MD. Fellow VA Medical Center, Omaha.  Now in private medical practice in Indianapolis, IN.

(1992-1996) Kusum Kharbanda, Ph.D. ,VA Medical Center,Omaha, NE, (Now Asst Prof, Dept Int. Med.).

(2000-present) James Haorah, Ph.D. VA Medical Center, Omaha, NE (Now a Researcher, Dept. Int. Med)

(2001-2003): Natalia Osna, M.D., Ph.D. VA Medical Center Omaha, NE  (Now an Instructor, Dept of Internal Medicine)

2003-Present): Tiana Curry-McCoy, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Dept of Pathology/Microbiology, UNMC.

Back to Top

Ethanol Effects on Proteolytic Systems in the Liver (Pending NIAAA-supported research)

These studies are focused on how ethanol impairs protein degradation in liver cells.  Normal breakdown of proteins is necessary for cell survival.  In the liver, ethanol is converted to acetaldehyde and its metabolism can lead to the generation of other compounds such as peroynitrite that react with and can damage proteins, rendering them biologically inactive. We wish to determine whether the ethanol-mediated impairments of the protein degradative pathways in liver cells can significantly affect the destruction of proteins altered by the products of ethanol oxidation.  One major focus in this investigation will be on a degradative pathway known as the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway (UPP), which specifically disposes of damaged proteins in the cell. This pathway has an essential role in a variety of cell functions, including programmed cell death and the regulation of gene expression. We have postulated that, because the level of certain transcription factors is modulated by the UPP, that its inhibition by ethanol may influence changes such as ethanol-elicited steatosis (fatty liver). Experiments are currently underway to determine this possibility.  

Potential Student Projects:

To determine whether nitration induced in vitro and by ethanol consumption in vivo can influence the activity of the proteasome.

          

To examine whether proteasome inhibition by ethanol enhances the activities and levels of the transcription factors SREBP-1 and Egr-1, both of which are involved in ethanol-elicited steatosis.

To examine whether ethanol consumption impairs the ubiquitin-proteasome system in vivo in transgenic mice and whether this impairment leads to liver injury.   

Proteolysis and Ethanol Induced Oxidative Stress in Cultured Hepatoma Cells (VA-supported  research)

The aim of this investigation is to use parental and recombinant cultured hepatoma cells, with varying capacities to metabolize ethanol, to determine whether ethanol metabolism is responsible for ethanol-induced changes in protein metabolism, previously observed in intact animals. We possess a number of HepG2 cell lines (human hepatoblastoma cells) that express either or both alcohol dehydrogenase and cytochrome-P450 2E1 (CYP2E1). We also possess cell lines that are inducble for CYP2E1.   These cell lines show demonstrable differences in their rates of ethanol metabolism, which, in turn is related to similar degrees of toxic responses to ethanol. Our hypothesis is that ethanol-induced impairments in protein metabolism can result in greater toxicity to ethanol metabolizing cells because the rate of protein turnover is altered, thereby resulting in the accumulation of altered proteins, which are potentially toxic to the cell.

Potential Student Projects:

To establish whether protein aggregates that form in response to ethanol are effective substrates or inhibitors of the proteasome and whether such aggregates cause cell death.

To investigate whether ethanol metabolism sensitizes HepG2 cells to induction of apoptosis by the pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNFα and IFNγ. 

To determine whether ethanol exposure disrupts the insulin-induced reduction of proteolysis in parental and recombinant Hep G2 cells.

Back to Top

The Omaha VA Medical Center is a nationally recognized Center for Alcohol Studies that has been funded by the Dept of Veterans Affairs since 1991. The Center is staffed by both UNMC and Creighton faculty who are well recognized in alcohol research.  The alcohol center is equipped with state-of-the art equipment and facilities. Furthermore the VA has initiated a Clinical Research Unit in the main hospital of the VA  to conduct human studies.

Back to Top