Neuroscience
Abstract
The most common form of human congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD) is caused by mutations in the laminin-α2 gene. Loss of laminin-α2 function in this autosomal recessive type 1A form of CMD results in neuromuscular dysfunction and, often, early death. Laminin-α2–deficient skeletal muscles in both humans and mice show signs of muscle cell death by apoptosis. To examine the significance of apoptosis in CMD1A pathogenesis, we determined whether pathogenesis in laminin-α2–deficient (Lama2–/–) mice could be ameliorated by inhibiting apoptosis through either (a) inactivation of the proapoptosis protein Bax or (b) overexpression of the antiapoptosis protein Bcl-2 from a muscle-specific transgene. We found that both of these genetic interventions produced a several-fold increase in the lifespan of Lama2–/– mice. Bax inactivation also improved postnatal growth rate and myofiber histology and decreased fixed contractures of Lama2–/– mice. Thus, Bcl-2 family–mediated apoptosis contributes significantly to pathogenesis in the mouse model of CMD1A, and antiapoptosis therapy may be a possible route to amelioration of neuromuscular dysfunction due to laminin-α2 deficiency in humans.
Authors
Mahasweta Girgenrath, Janice A. Dominov, Christine A. Kostek, Jeffrey Boone Miller
Abstract
Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are composed of abnormal aggregates of the cytoskeletal protein tau. Together with amyloid β (Aβ) plaques and neuronal and synaptic loss, NFTs constitute the primary pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer disease (AD). Recent evidence also suggests that caspases are activated early in the progression of AD and may play a role in neuronal loss and NFT pathology. Here we demonstrate that tau is cleaved at D421 (ΔTau) by executioner caspases. Following caspase-cleavage, ΔTau facilitates nucleation-dependent filament formation and readily adopts a conformational change recognized by the early pathological tau marker MC1. ΔTau can be phosphorylated by glycogen synthase kinase-3β and subsequently recognized by the NFT antibody PHF-1. In transgenic mice and AD brains, ΔTau associates with both early and late markers of NFTs and is correlated with cognitive decline. Additionally, ΔTau colocalizes with Aβ1–42 and is induced by Aβ1–42 in vitro. Collectively, our data imply that Aβ accumulation triggers caspase activation, leading to caspase-cleavage of tau, and that this is an early event that may precede hyperphosphorylation in the evolution of AD tangle pathology. These results suggest that therapeutics aimed at inhibiting tau caspase-cleavage may prove beneficial not only in preventing NFT formation, but also in slowing cognitive decline.
Authors
Robert A. Rissman, Wayne W. Poon, Mathew Blurton-Jones, Salvatore Oddo, Reidun Torp, Michael P. Vitek, Frank M. LaFerla, Troy T. Rohn, Carl W. Cotman
Abstract
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous degenerative eye disease. Mutations at Arg135 of rhodopsin are associated with a severe form of autosomal dominant RP. This report presents evidence that Arg135 mutant rhodopsins (e.g., R135L, R135G, and R135W) are hyperphosphorylated and bind with high affinity to visual arrestin. Mutant rhodopsin recruits the cytosolic arrestin to the plasma membrane, and the rhodopsin-arrestin complex is internalized into the endocytic pathway. Furthermore, the rhodopsin-arrestin complexes alter the morphology of endosomal compartments and severely damage receptor-mediated endocytic functions. The biochemical and cellular defects of Arg135 mutant rhodopsins are distinct from those previously described for class I and class II RP mutations, and, hence, we propose that they be named class III. Impaired endocytic activity may underlie the pathogenesis of RP caused by class III rhodopsin mutations.
Authors
Jen-Zen Chuang, Carrie Vega, Wenjin Jun, Ching-Hwa Sung
Abstract
Thrombolysis is widely used to intervene in acute ischemic stroke, but reestablishment of circulation may paradoxically initiate a reperfusion injury. Here we describe studies with mice lacking protein kinase Cδ (PKCδ) showing that absence of this enzyme markedly reduces reperfusion injury following transient ischemia. This was associated with reduced infiltration of peripheral blood neutrophils into infarcted tissue and with impaired neutrophil adhesion, migration, respiratory burst, and degranulation in vitro. Total body irradiation followed by transplantation with bone marrow from PKCδ-null mice donors reduced infarct size and improved neurological outcome in WT mice, whereas marrow transplantation from WT donors increased infarction and worsened neurological scores in PKCδ-null mice. These results indicate an important role for neutrophil PKCδ in reperfusion injury and strongly suggest that PKCδ inhibitors could prove useful in the treatment of stroke.
Authors
Wen-Hai Chou, Doo-Sup Choi, Hong Zhang, Dezhi Mu, Tom McMahon, Viktor N. Kharazia, Clifford A. Lowell, Donna M. Ferriero, Robert O. Messing
Abstract
Bone marrow stromal cells (MSCs) have the capability under specific conditions of differentiating into various cell types such as osteocytes, chondrocytes, and adipocytes. Here we demonstrate a highly efficient and specific induction of cells with neuronal characteristics, without glial differentiation, from both rat and human MSCs using gene transfection with Notch intracellular domain (NICD) and subsequent treatment with bFGF, forskolin, and ciliary neurotrophic factor. MSCs expressed markers related to neural stem cells after transfection with NICD, and subsequent trophic factor administration induced neuronal cells. Some of them showed voltage-gated fast sodium and delayed rectifier potassium currents and action potentials compatible with characteristics of functional neurons. Further treatment of the induced neuronal cells with glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) increased the proportion of tyrosine hydroxylase–positive and dopamine-producing cells. Transplantation of these GDNF-treated cells showed improvement in apomorphine-induced rotational behavior and adjusting step and paw-reaching tests following intrastriatal implantation in a 6-hydroxy dopamine rat model of Parkinson disease. This study shows that a population of neuronal cells can be specifically generated from MSCs and that induced cells may allow for a neuroreconstructive approach.
Authors
Mari Dezawa, Hiroshi Kanno, Mikio Hoshino, Hirotomi Cho, Naoya Matsumoto, Yutaka Itokazu, Nobuyoshi Tajima, Hitoshi Yamada, Hajime Sawada, Hiroto Ishikawa, Toshirou Mimura, Masaaki Kitada, Yoshihisa Suzuki, Chizuka Ide
Abstract
Uracil-DNA glycosylase (UNG) is involved in base excision repair of aberrant uracil residues in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Ung knockout mice generated by gene targeting are viable, fertile, and phenotypically normal and have regular mutation rates. However, when exposed to a nitric oxide donor, Ung–/– fibroblasts show an increase in the uracil/cytosine ratio in the genome and augmented cell death. After combined oxygen-glucose deprivation, Ung–/– primary cortical neurons have increased vulnerability to cell death, which is associated with early mitochondrial dysfunction. In vivo, UNG expression and activity are low in brains of naive WT mice but increase significantly after reversible middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion. Moreover, major increases in infarct size are observed in Ung–/– mice compared with littermate control mice. In conclusion, our results provide compelling evidence that UNG is of major importance for tissue repair after brain ischemia.
Authors
Matthias Endres, Detlev Biniszkiewicz, Robert W. Sobol, Christoph Harms, Michael Ahmadi, Andreas Lipski, Juri Katchanov, Philipp Mergenthaler, Ulrich Dirnagl, Samuel H. Wilson, Andreas Meisel, Rudolf Jaenisch
Abstract
Cortical spreading depression (CSD) is a propagating wave of neuronal and glial depolarization and has been implicated in disorders of neurovascular regulation such as stroke, head trauma, and migraine. In this study, we found that CSD alters blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability by activating brain MMPs. Beginning at 3–6 hours, MMP-9 levels increased within cortex ipsilateral to the CSD, reaching a maximum at 24 hours and persisting for at least 48 hours. Gelatinolytic activity was detected earliest within the matrix of cortical blood vessels and later within neurons and pia arachnoid (≥3 hours), particularly within piriform cortex; this activity was suppressed by injection of the metalloprotease inhibitor GM6001 or in vitro by the addition of a zinc chelator (1,10-phenanthroline). At 3–24 hours, immunoreactive laminin, endothelial barrier antigen, and zona occludens-1 diminished in the ipsilateral cortex, suggesting that CSD altered proteins critical to the integrity of the BBB. At 3 hours after CSD, plasma protein leakage and brain edema developed contemporaneously. Albumin leakage was suppressed by the administration of GM6001. Protein leakage was not detected in MMP-9–null mice, implicating the MMP-9 isoform in barrier disruption. We conclude that intense neuronal and glial depolarization initiates a cascade that disrupts the BBB via an MMP-9–dependent mechanism.
Authors
Yasemin Gursoy-Ozdemir, Jianhua Qiu, Norihiro Matsuoka, Hayrunnisa Bolay, Daniela Bermpohl, Hongwei Jin, Xiaoying Wang, Gary A. Rosenberg, Eng H. Lo, Michael A. Moskowitz
Abstract
Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized by excessive deposition of amyloid β-peptides (Aβ peptides) in the brain. In the nonamyloidogenic pathway, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is cleaved by the α-secretase within the Aβ peptide sequence. Proteinases of the ADAM family (adisintegrin and metalloproteinase) are the main candidates as physiologically relevant α-secretases, but early lethality of knockout animals prevented a detailed analysis in neuronal cells. To overcome this restriction, we have generated transgenic mice that overexpress either ADAM10 or a catalytically inactive ADAM10 mutant. In this report we show that a moderate neuronal overexpression of ADAM10 in mice transgenic for human APP[V717I] increased the secretion of the neurotrophic soluble α-secretase–released N-terminal APP domain (APPsα), reduced the formation of Aβ peptides, and prevented their deposition in plaques. Functionally, impaired long-term potentiation and cognitive deficits were alleviated. Expression of mutant catalytically inactive ADAM10 led to an enhancement of the number and size of amyloid plaques in the brains of double-transgenic mice. The results provide the first in vivo evidence for a proteinase of the ADAM family as an α-secretase of APP, reveal activation of ADAM10 as a promising therapeutic target, and support the hypothesis that a decrease in α-secretase activity contributes to the development of AD.
Authors
Rolf Postina, Anja Schroeder, Ilse Dewachter, Juergen Bohl, Ulrich Schmitt, Elzbieta Kojro, Claudia Prinzen, Kristina Endres, Christoph Hiemke, Manfred Blessing, Pascaline Flamez, Antoine Dequenne, Emile Godaux, Fred van Leuven, Falk Fahrenholz
Abstract
Recently, pathological prion protein PrPSc, the putative key constituent of infectious agents causing transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), was found in muscles of rodents experimentally infected with scrapie and in patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). For the assessment of risk scenarios originating from these findings (e.g., alimentary transmission of pathogens associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy [BSE] and chronic wasting disease [CWD] via tainted beef and game or iatrogenic dissemination of CJD agent through contaminated surgical instruments) more detailed information about the time course of PrPSc accumulation in muscles at preclinical and clinical stages of incubation is needed. Here we show that PrPSc in muscles of hamsters fed with scrapie can be detected prior to the onset of clinical symptoms, but that the bulk of PrPSc was deposited late in clinical disease. Additionally, regarding the question of how muscles become invaded, we report on the intramuscular location of PrPSc and substantial indications for centrifugal spread of infection from spinal motor neurons to myofibers. Our findings in a well-established animal model for TSEs contribute to a better assessment of the risks for public health emanating from “Prions in skeletal muscle” and provide new insights into the pathophysiological spread of TSE agents through the body.
Authors
Achim Thomzig, Walter Schulz-Schaeffer, Christine Kratzel, Jessica Mai, Michael Beekes
Abstract
Control of cancer, neuropathic, and postoperative pain is frequently inadequate or compromised by debilitating side effects. Inhibition or removal of certain nociceptive neurons, while retaining all other sensory modalities and motor function, would represent a new therapeutic approach to control severe pain. The enriched expression of transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily V, member 1 (TRPV1; also known as the vanilloid receptor, VR1) in nociceptive neurons of the dorsal root and trigeminal ganglia allowed us to test this concept. Administration of the potent TRPV1 agonist resiniferatoxin (RTX) to neuronal perikarya induces calcium cytotoxicity by opening the TRPV1 ion channel and selectively ablates nociceptive neurons. This treatment blocks experimental inflammatory hyperalgesia and neurogenic inflammation in rats and naturally occurring cancer and debilitating arthritic pain in dogs. Sensations of touch, proprioception, and high-threshold mechanosensitive nociception, as well as locomotor function, remained intact in both species. In separate experiments directed at postoperative pain control, subcutaneous administration of RTX transiently disrupted nociceptive nerve endings, yielding reversible analgesia. In human dorsal root ganglion cultures, RTX induced a prolonged increase in intracellular calcium in vanilloid-sensitive neurons, while leaving other, adjacent neurons unaffected. The results suggest that nociceptive neuronal or nerve terminal deletion will be effective and broadly applicable as strategies for pain management.
Authors
Laszlo Karai, Dorothy C. Brown, Andrew J. Mannes, Stephen T. Connelly, Jacob Brown, Michael Gandal, Ofer M. Wellisch, John K. Neubert, Zoltan Olah, Michael J. Iadarola
Copyright © 2026 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)