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Caudo-rostral brain spreading of ?-synuclein through vagal connections.

ABSTRACT: ?-Synuclein accumulation and pathology in Parkinson's disease typically display a caudo-rostral pattern of progression, involving neuronal nuclei in the medulla oblongata at the earliest stages. In this study, selective expression and accumulation of human ?-synuclein within medullary neurons was achieved via retrograde transport of adeno-associated viral vectors unilaterally injected into the vagus nerve in the rat neck. The exogenous protein progressively spread toward more rostral brain regions where it could be detected within axonal projections. Propagation to the pons, midbrain and forebrain followed a stereotypical pattern of topographical distribution. It affected areas such as the coeruleus-subcoeruleus complex, dorsal raphae, hypothalamus and amygdala ipsilateral and, to a lesser extent, contralateral to the injection side. Spreading was accompanied by evidence of neuritic pathology in the form of axonal varicosities intensely immunoreactive for human ?-synuclein and containing Thioflavin-S-positive fibrils. Thus, overexpression of human ?-synuclein in the lower brainstem is sufficient to induce its long-distance caudo-rostral propagation, recapitulating features of Parkinson's disease and mechanisms of disease progression.

SUBMITTER: Ulusoy A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3721477 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Caudo-rostral brain spreading of α-synuclein through vagal connections.

Ulusoy Ayse A Rusconi Raffaella R Pérez-Revuelta Blanca I BI Musgrove Ruth E RE Helwig Michael M Winzen-Reichert Bettina B Di Monte Donato A DA

EMBO molecular medicine 20130523 7

α-Synuclein accumulation and pathology in Parkinson's disease typically display a caudo-rostral pattern of progression, involving neuronal nuclei in the medulla oblongata at the earliest stages. In this study, selective expression and accumulation of human α-synuclein within medullary neurons was achieved via retrograde transport of adeno-associated viral vectors unilaterally injected into the vagus nerve in the rat neck. The exogenous protein progressively spread toward more rostral brain regio ...[more]

PMID: 23703938

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Project description:BackgroundThe accumulation of misfolded proteins appears as a fundamental pathogenic process in human neurodegenerative diseases. In the case of synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's disease (PD) or dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), the intraneuronal deposition of aggregated alpha-synuclein (?S) is a major characteristic of the disease, but the molecular basis distinguishing the disease-associated protein (?SD) from its normal counterpart remains poorly understood. However, recent research suggests that a prion-like mechanism could be involved in the inter-cellular and inter-molecular propagation of aggregation of the protein within the nervous system.ResultsOur data confirm our previous observations of disease acceleration in a transgenic mouse line (M83) overexpressing a mutated (A53T) form of human ?S, following inoculation of either brain extracts from sick M83 mice or fibrillar recombinant ?S. A similar phenomenon is observed following a "second passage" in the M83 mouse model, including after stereotactic inoculations into the hippocampus or cerebellum. For further molecular analyses of ?SD, we designed an ELISA test that identifies ?SD specifically in sick mice and in the brain regions targeted by the pathological process in this mouse model. ?SD distribution, mainly in the caudal brain regions and spinal cord, overall appears remarkably uniform, whatever the conditions of experimental challenge. In addition to specific detection of ?SD immunoreactivity using an antibody against Ser129 phosphorylated ?S, similar results were observed in ELISA with several other antibodies against the C-terminal part of ?S, including an antibody against non phosphorylated ?S. This also indicated consistent immunoreactivity of the murine ?S protein specifically in the affected brain regions of sick mice.ConclusionsPrion-like behaviour in propagation of the disease-associated ?S was confirmed with the M83 transgenic mouse model, that could be followed by an ELISA test. The ELISA data question their possible relationship with the conformational differences between the disease-associated ?S and its normal counterpart.

Dataset Information

Caudo-rostral brain spreading of ?-synuclein through vagal connections.

Publications

Caudo-rostral brain spreading of α-synuclein through vagal connections.

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