Project description:Polycomb group (PcG) proteins bind to and repress genes in embryonic stem cells and through lineage commitment to the terminal differentiated state. PcG repressed genes are commonly characterized by the presence of the epigenetic histone mark, H3K27me3, catalyzed by the Polycomb repressive complex 2. Here, we present in vivo evidence for a previously unrecognized plasticity of PcG-repressed genes in terminal differentiated brain neurons of parkisonian mice. We show that acute administration of the dopamine precursor, L-DOPA, induces a remarkable increase in H3K27me3S28 phosphorylation. The induction of the H3K27me3S28p histone mark specifically occurs in medium spiny neurons expressing the dopamine D1 receptors and is dependent on Msk1 kinase activity and DARPP-32-mediated inhibition of protein phosphatase-1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments showed that increased H3K27me3S28p was accompanied by reduced PcG binding to regulatory regions of genes. An analysis of the genome wide distribution of L-DOPA induced H3K27me3S28 phosphorylation by ChIP sequencing (ChIP-seq) in combination with expression analysis by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) showed that the induction of H3K27me3S28p correlated with increased expression of a subset of PcG repressed genes. We found that induction of H3K27me3S28p persisted during chronic L-DOPA administration to parkisonian mice and correlated with aberrant gene expression. We propose that dopaminergic transmission can activate PcG repressed genes in the adult brain and thereby contribute to long-term maladaptive responses including the motor complications, or dyskinesia, caused by prolonged administration of L-DOPA in Parkinsons disease. 12 mice were used for RNAseq, 4 conditions, 3 mice per condition.
Project description:Polycomb group (PcG) proteins bind to and repress genes in embryonic stem cells and through lineage commitment to the terminal differentiated state. PcG repressed genes are commonly characterized by the presence of the epigenetic histone mark, H3K27me3, catalyzed by the Polycomb repressive complex 2. Here, we present in vivo evidence for a previously unrecognized plasticity of PcG-repressed genes in terminal differentiated brain neurons of parkisonian mice. We show that acute administration of the dopamine precursor, L-DOPA, induces a remarkable increase in H3K27me3S28 phosphorylation. The induction of the H3K27me3S28p histone mark specifically occurs in medium spiny neurons expressing the dopamine D1 receptors and is dependent on Msk1 kinase activity and DARPP-32-mediated inhibition of protein phosphatase-1. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments showed that increased H3K27me3S28p was accompanied by reduced PcG binding to regulatory regions of genes. An analysis of the genome wide distribution of L-DOPA induced H3K27me3S28 phosphorylation by ChIP sequencing (ChIP-seq) in combination with expression analysis by RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) showed that the induction of H3K27me3S28p correlated with increased expression of a subset of PcG repressed genes. We found that induction of H3K27me3S28p persisted during chronic L-DOPA administration to parkisonian mice and correlated with aberrant gene expression. We propose that dopaminergic transmission can activate PcG repressed genes in the adult brain and thereby contribute to long-term maladaptive responses including the motor complications, or dyskinesia, caused by prolonged administration of L-DOPA in Parkinsons disease. 8 ChIP-seq libraries were generated from a pool of chromatin generated from 45 mice.
Project description:We analyzed the RNA expression profiles of Parkinson's model (6-hydroxydopamine lesion, 6-OHDA) mice in two different genotypes, WT and iMSN-D2RKO mice. Mutant iMSN-D2RKO mice were generated by mating D2Rflox/flox males with D2Rflox/flox females carrying the CRE under the control of the D1 receptor promoter (D1)-Cre. This way, we generated the D2Rflox/flox/D1-Cre/+ line; the D2Rflox/flox mice are thereafter called WT in our study. The D1R gene is expressed during development in MSNs precursors allowing the deletion of D2R as previously shown selectively in iMSNs. The RNA expression profiles were analyzed in three experimental groups: 1) sham-lesioned (sham); 2) 6-OHDA-lesioned (6-OHDA); and 3) 6-OHDA lesioned/L-DOPA-treated (15 mg/kg ). (L-DOPA). Mice of both genotypes were sacrificed 1h after the treatment and brains were flash frozen. Punches of the dorsolateralstriatum(DLS) were obtained on cryostat sections and processed for RNA extraction to prepare the library.
Project description:L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (levodopa) treatment is the major pharmacotherapy for Parkinson's disease. However, almost all patients receiving levodopa eventually develop debilitating involuntary movements (dyskinesia). While it is known that striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs) are involved in the genesis of this movement disorder, the molecular basis of dyskinesia is not understood. In this study, we identify distinct cell-type-specific gene expression changes that occur in sub-classes of SPNs upon induction of a parkinsonian lesion followed by chronic levodopa treatment. We identify several hundred genes whose expression is correlated with levodopa dose, many of which are under the control of AP-1 and ERK signaling. In spite of homeostatic adaptations involving several signaling modulators, AP-1-dependent gene expression remains highly dysregulated in direct pathway SPNs (dSPNs) upon chronic levodopa treatment. We also discuss which molecular pathways are most likely to dampen abnormal dopaminoceptive signaling in spiny projection neurons, hence providing potential targets for antidyskinetic treatments in Parkinson's disease. To profile the cell-type-specific responses of striatal spiny projection neurons (SPNs) to striatal dopamine depletion, we conducted TRAP analysis of the two major classes of these neurons: dSPNs that express the dopamine receptor 1a (Drd1a), and iSPNs that express the dopamine receptor 2 (Drd2). To disrupt dopamine innervation to both of these SPN populations that reside in the striatum, we injected the neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), unilaterally, in the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) in hemizygous Drd1-TRAP and Drd2-TRAP adult (9-14 weeks) male mice (kept on a C57BL/6J genetic background). This lesion procedure causes nigral dopamine cell death within a few days, along with a widespread and near-complete loss of dopaminergic innervation to the entire dorsal striatum on one side of the brain (a hemiparkinsonian model). We first examined the effects of dopamine depletion alone, compared to a mock lesion (ascorbate / saline injected). We then examined the effects of chronic levodopa treatment upon the molecular profiles of dopamine- depleted dSPNs and iSPNs, with two dose regimens. The ‘high-dose’ L-DOPA regimen (3 mg/kg on days 1-3, followed by 6 mg/kg on days 4-9) was expected to induce severe dyskinesia in all MFB-lesioned mice. The low-dose L-DOPA regimen (1 mg/kg on days 1-3, followed by 2 mg/kg on days 4-9) was expected to reverse limb use asymmetry without causing conspicuous dyskinesias. To equalize the effects of stress and handling across all groups, including control groups, all mice were equally handled and thus received saline injections when not receiving levodopa injections. Each treatment group contained 7-10 replicates. TRAP-purified mRNAs from either Drd1a- or Drd2-expressing SPNs were reverse-transcribed, amplified, and used to interrogate Affymetrix 430_2.0 GeneChip microarrays.
Project description:Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a persistent behavioral sensitization that develops after repeated levodopa (L-DOPA) exposure in Parkinson disease (PD) patients. we used reduced representation bisulfite sequencing to determine the methylation status of cytosines genome wide at base pair resolution following a parkinsonian-like lesion and LID development. Due to the enrichment of RRBS, we focused our analysis to cytosines in a CpG context and observed extensive locus-specific changes in DNA methylation, including a preponderance of demethylation, in the dorsal striatum following the development of dyskinetic behaviors in our animal model system. Changes in DNA methylation were concentrated in putative regulatory regions of many genes known to be aberrantly transcribed following L-DOPA exposure and enriched for genes relevant to mechanisms of synaptic plasticity. In the areas of the genome exhibiting the highest levels of effect, the magnitudes of change to methylation were strongly correlated with dyskinetic behaviors. Rats were given a unilateral dopaminergic lesion to the left medial forebrain bundle with 6-OHDA to destroy at least 90% of TH positive axons. Animals were allowed to recover for 3 weeks and then given daily injections of L-DOPA (6 mg/kg) for seven days to establish stable dyskinesia. Animals were sacked 3 hrs following the final L-DOPA injection and the dorsal striatum was immediately dissected and flash frozen. Striatal tissue samples were processed for nucleic acid isolation using the AllPrep DNA/RNA Mini Kit (Qiagen) following the manufacturer's instructions. One μg of gDNA sample was used for library construction. Bisulfite converted DNA libraries were produced and adaptor ligated, and single-end reads were sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq-2500 following library QC. Bisulfite conversion efficiency was greater that 98% for all of the samples and we obtained an average of 68 million reads per library. Quality control on raw reads was performed with FastQC (version 0.10.1, http://www.bioinformatics.bbsrc.ac.uk/projects/fastqc), and adaptor trimming and removal of trimmed reads shorter than 20 bp was performed with Trim Galore (version 0.3.7, http://www.bioinformatics.babraham.ac.uk/projects/trim_galore). Trimmed reads were mapped to the UCSC Rattus norvegicus rn5 genome with the methylation-aware mapper bismark (version 0.13.0). Samtools (version 0.1.19â??96b5f2294a) was used to sort SAM files produced by bismark and de-duplicate reads. SAM files were analyzed using MethylKit (version 0.9.2) in R (Akalin et al., 2012). Reads were filtered based on coverage, with a cutoff of at least ten reads per site, and normalized for each samples coverage before analysis. The genome was tiled at 250 bp and regions were counted if they contained at least 2 identified CpGs per tile. Differential methylation was defined as a sliding linear model correct p-value of <0.01 and, for highly dynamic regions, included at least a 5% change.
Project description:In this study, we compared gene expression profiles of sensorimotor striatum tissue derived from LID and non-LID 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats treated with L-DOPA. Total RNA were amplified, transcribed and hybridized to Agilent Whole Rat Genome Oligo Microarray chips.
Project description:Unilateral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) is used extensively as a model of Parkinson’s disease. The present experiments examined whether a single injection of methamphetamine (METH) (2.5 mg/kg) could still influence striatal gene expression after 6-hydroxydopamine (DA)-induced destruction of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic pathway in the rat. Unilateral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the MFB resulted in total striatal dopamine depletion on the lesioned side. This injection also caused decreased striatal serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) levels. DA depletion was associated with increases in 5-HIAA/5-HT ratios which were potentiated by the METH injection. Microarray analyses revealed changes (+ 1.7-fold, p < 0.025) in the expression of 67 genes on the lesioned side in comparison to the intact side of the saline-treated hemiparkinsonian animals. These include follistatin, neuromedin U, and tachykinin 2 which were up-regulated. METH administration caused increases in the expression of several genes including c-fos, Egr1, and NOR-1 on the intact side. On the DA-depleted side, METH administration also increased the expression of 61 genes including Pdgfd and COX-2. There were METH-induced changes in 16 genes that were common in the DA-innervated and DA-depleted sides. These include c-fos and NOR-1 which show greater changes on the normal DA side. The present study documents METH-mediated DA-independent transcriptional alterations of several genes in the DA-denervated striatum. Our results also implicate serotonin as an important player in METH-induced gene expression because the METH injection also caused significant increases in 5-HIAA/5-HT ratios on the DA-depleted side. 31 samples. MNL (6), ML (6), SNL (5), SL (6), CS (4), CM (4)
Project description:This study addresses the molecular mechanisms underlying the action of subthalamic nucleus high frequency stimulation (STN-HFS) in the treatment of ParkinsonM-bM-^@M-^Ys disease and its interaction with levoDOPA (L-DOPA), focusing on the striatum. The objectives were 1) to identify the molecular signature of STN-HFS action at striatal level, associated with its efficient antiparkinsonian action, and 2) to investigate the molecular substrates of the interaction between the two treatments in order to evidence possible genes involved in dyskinesia. Striatal gene expression profile was assessed in rats with nigral DOPAmine neuron lesion, either treated or not, using agilent microarrays and qPCR verification. The treatments consisted in anti-akinetic STN-HFS (5 days), chronic L-DOPA treatment inducing dyskinesia (LIDs) or the combination of the two treatments that exacerbated LIDs. STN-HFS modulated 71 genes with functional or biochemical annotation, including genes sharing the GO terms regulation of growth, regulation of apoptosis, extracellular region. Ttr, Igf2, Sostdc1 and Nr4A3 (Nor-1), are among the 5 genes showing the highest specific upregulation. Down-regulated genes include Prkcd, Sirt5 and Bbc3. These results show that genes involved in neuroprotection and/or neurogenesis are key components of STN-HFS action in the striatum. STN-HFS and LDOPA treatment share very few common gene regulation features suggesting that the molecular substrates underlying their striatal action are mostly different. In addition to genes already reported to be associated with LIDs (Pdyn, Trh, Grm4/mGlu4, Cnr1/CB1), the comparison between DOPA and DOPA/STN-HFS identifies immunity-related genes: C1s, Rt1-Da and Irf7a, as potential players in L-DOPA side effects. Total RNA was extracted from striatal tissue from four groups of 3 animals bearing 6-hydroxyDOPAmine (6-OHDA)-induced lesion of the nigrostriatal DA pathway: lesion alone without any subsequent treatment (L), L-DOPA treatment for 19 days (D), STN-HFS for 5 days (S) and combination of L-DOPA and STN-HFS (DS).
Project description:Histone acetylation and other modifications of the chromatin are important regulators of gene expression and, consequently, may contribute to drug-induced behaviors and neuroplasticity. Previous studies have shown that a reduction on histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity results on the enhancement of some psychostimulant-induced behaviors. In the present study, we extend those seminal findings by showing that the administration of the HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate enhances morphine-induced locomotor sensitization and conditioned place preference. In contrast, this compound has no effects on the development of morphine tolerance and dependence. Similar effects were observed for cocaine and ethanol-induced behaviors. These behavioral changes were accompanied by a selective boosting of a component of the transcriptional program activated by chronic morphine administration that included circadian clock genes and other genes relevant in addictive behavior. Our results support an specific role for histone acetylation and the epigenetic modulation of transcription at a reduced number of biologically relevant loci on non-homeostatic, long lasting, drug-induced behavioral plasticity. To further investigate the molecular bases of sodium butyrate action on long-lasting behavioral responses to morphine, we screened for potential substrates of their interaction by performing a genome-wide comparison of the striatal transcriptome after chronic administration of morphine in the absence or presence of sodium butyrate. Striatal tissue was dissected from two months-old Swiss-Albino male mice subjected to behavioral sensitization. Behavioural sensitization: Locomotor sensitization induced by morphine was evaluated using a protocol divided into two phases: induction and challenge. The induction phase involved six trials on alternate days, one trial per day. On each one of these trials, mice received and injection of saline or sodium butyrate (300 mg/kg) immediatedly followed by a second injection of morphine (20 mg/kg). The challenge phases consisted of a single trial conducted 7 days after the last test of the induction phase. In this case, all animals received a single injection of morphine (20 mg/kg). Striatal RNA was extracted 1h after the morphine challenge in groups of four animals that received either saline (N=6) or morphine (N=3), or the sodium butyrate-morphine (N=3) co-treatment during the sensitization induction phase.
Project description:Study was performed to improve understanding of erythropoiesis (EP) induced by acute anemia in Atlantic salmon. Fish was injected with a low dose of hemolytic compound phenylhydrazine (PHZ). Treatment resulted in moderate but significant reduction of hematocrit (Hct) and increased transcription of cardiac erythropoietin (epo) at 2 days post challenge (dpc), and epo receptor (epor) in spleen from 2 to 4 dpc. Oligonucleotide microarrays were used to characterize the events of EP in the spleen. These results were compared to gene expression profiles of untreated mature red blood cells (RBC) in order to search for erythroid-specific genes. Splenic responses suggested a prevalence of protective mechanisms at the first stage, characterized by induced xenobiotic metabolism and responses to oxidative and protein stress. Erythroid-specific regulation was evident at 2 dpc and enhanced by 4 dpc, and gene expression profiles witnessed a rapid establishment of RBC phenotype although Hct levels remained low. A large group of genes showed a strong correlation to globins by expression profiles. In addition to epor this included genes of heme and iron metabolism, scavengers of free radicals and chaperones, channels and transporters, markers of erythrocytes, regulators of proliferation and cell cycle arrest and many genes with unidentified roles in RBC differentiation. Induced EP in spleen was characterized by specific features, such as upregulation of virus-responsive genes and sustained high expression of proapoptotic genes including caspases. Transcriptome changes suggested an association between EP and suppression of several developmental programs including adaptive immune responses. In conclusion, acute hemolysis and resulting anemia rapidly induced EP in the spleen of Atlantic salmon, which showed both common characteristics for all vertebrates as well as fish-specific properties. Atlantic salmon was injected with a single dose of PHZ (6 mg/kg body mass) or saline. Spleen samples for microarray analyses were collected after 2 and 4 days. Additonally, red blood cells (RBC) were compared with spleen