Abstract
Extra-nigral central nervous system sites have been found to be affected in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In addition to substantia nigra, degeneration of spinal cord motor neurons may play a role in the motor symptoms of PD. To this end, hybrid rodent VSC 4.1 cells differentiated into motoneurons were used as a cell culture model following exposure to Parkinsonian neurotoxicant MPP+. SJA6017, a cell-permeable calpain inhibitor, was tested for its neuroprotective efficacy against the neurotoxicant. SJA6017 attenuated MPP+-induced rise in intracellular free Ca2+ and concomitant increases in the active form of calpain. It also significantly prevented increased levels of proteases and their activities, as shown by reduced levels of 145 kDa calpain-specific and 120 kDa caspase-3-specific spectrin breakdown products. Exposure to MPP+ elevated the levels of reactive oxygen species in VSC 4.1 motoneurons; this was significantly diminished with SJA6017. The motor proteins in spinal motoneurons, i.e., dynein and kinesin, were also impaired following exposure to MPP+ through calpain-mediated mechanisms; this process was partially ameliorated by SJA6017 pretreatment. Cytoprotection provided by SJA6017 against MPP+-induced damage to VSC 4.1 motoneurons was confirmed by restoration of membrane potential via whole-cell patch-clamp assay. This study demonstrates that calpain inhibition is a prospective route for neuroprotection in experimental PD; moreover, calpain inhibitor SJA6017 appears to be an effective neuroprotective agent against MPP+-induced damage in spinal motoneurons.
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Abbreviations
- dVSC 4.1:
-
Differentiated ventral spinal cord cells
- MTT:
-
3-(4, 5-Dimethythiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide
- IR:
-
Immunoreactivity
- MPTP:
-
1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine
- PD:
-
Parkinson’s disease
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- SBDP:
-
Spectrin breakdown products
- SC:
-
Spinal cord
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Acknowledgments
The hybrid cell line VSC 4.1 was a gift from Dr. Stanley H. Appel (Houston, TX, USA).
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This work was supported in part by NIH-NINDS (R01NS062327-01A2), Veterans Administration (1I01BX004269-01), and the South Carolina State Spinal Cord Research Fund (SCIRF-2015P-01, SCIRF-2015P-04, SCIRF-2015-I-01, SCIRF-2016 I-03, and SCIRF #2018 I-01).
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Samantaray, S., Knaryan, V.H., M. Del Re, A. et al. Cell-Permeable Calpain Inhibitor SJA6017 Provides Functional Protection to Spinal Motoneurons Exposed to MPP+. Neurotox Res 38, 640–649 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-020-00264-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12640-020-00264-3