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A53T-alpha-synuclein overexpression impairs dopamine signaling and striatal synaptic plasticity in old mice

  • BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD), the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder at old age, can be caused by elevated expression or the A53T missense mutation of the presynaptic protein alpha-synuclein (SNCA). PD is characterized pathologically by the preferential vulnerability of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal projection neurons. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we used two mouse lines overexpressing human A53T-SNCA and studied striatal dysfunction in the absence of neurodegeneration to understand early disease mechanisms. To characterize the progression, we employed young adult as well as old mice. Analysis of striatal neurotransmitter content demonstrated that dopamine (DA) levels correlated directly with the level of expression of SNCA, an observation also made in SNCA-deficient (knockout, KO) mice. However, the elevated DA levels in the striatum of old A53T-SNCA overexpressing mice may not be transmitted appropriately, in view of three observations. First, a transcriptional downregulation of the extraneural DA degradation enzyme catechol-ortho-methytransferase (COMT) was found. Second, an upregulation of DA receptors was detected by immunoblots and autoradiography. Third, extensive transcriptome studies via microarrays and quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) of altered transcript levels of the DA-inducible genes Atf2, Cb1, Freq, Homer1 and Pde7b indicated a progressive and genotype-dependent reduction in the postsynaptic DA response. As a functional consequence, long term depression (LTD) was absent in corticostriatal slices from old transgenic mice. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Taken together, the dysfunctional neurotransmission and impaired synaptic plasticity seen in the A53T-SNCA overexpressing mice reflect early changes within the basal ganglia prior to frank neurodegeneration. As a model of preclinical stages of PD, such insights may help to develop neuroprotective therapeutic approaches.

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Author:Alexander Kurz, Kay L. Double, Isabel Lastres-Becker, Alessandro Tozzi, Michela Tantucci, Vanessa Bockhart, Michael Bonin, Moisés García-Arencibia, Silke Nuber, Falk Schlaudraff, Birgit Liss, Javier Fernández-Ruiz, Manfred Gerlach, Ullrich Wüllner, Hartmut Lüddens, Paolo Calabresi, Georg AuburgerORCiDGND, Suzana Gispert
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-84718
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011464
ISSN:1932-6203
Parent Title (English):PLoS One
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2010/07/07
Date of first Publication:2010/07/07
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2010/11/11
Volume:5
Issue:(7): e11464
Note:
Copyright: © 2010 Kurz et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Source:PLoS ONE 5(7): e11464. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011464
HeBIS-PPN:229946380
Institutes:Medizin / Medizin
Dewey Decimal Classification:6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0