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Nurr1 and Retinoid X Receptor Ligands Stimulate Ret Signaling in Dopamine Neurons and Can Alleviate α-Synuclein Disrupted Gene Expression.

Volakakis, Nikolaos ; Tiklova, Katarina ; Decressac, Mickael LU ; Papathanou, Maria ; Mattsson, Bengt LU ; Gillberg, Linda ; Nobre, André ; Björklund, Anders LU orcid and Perlmann, Thomas (2015) In The Journal of Neuroscience 35(42). p.14370-14385
Abstract
α-synuclein, a protein enriched in Lewy bodies and highly implicated in neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease, is distributed both at nerve terminals and in the cell nucleus. Here we show that a nuclear derivative of α-synuclein induces more pronounced changes at the gene expression level in mouse primary dopamine (DA) neurons compared to a derivative that is excluded from the nucleus. Moreover, by RNA sequencing we analyzed the extent of genome-wide effects on gene expression resulting from expression of human α-synuclein in primary mouse DA neurons. The results implicated the transcription factor Nurr1 as a key dysregulated target of α-synuclein toxicity. Forced Nurr1 expression restored the expression of hundreds of dysregulated genes in... (More)
α-synuclein, a protein enriched in Lewy bodies and highly implicated in neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease, is distributed both at nerve terminals and in the cell nucleus. Here we show that a nuclear derivative of α-synuclein induces more pronounced changes at the gene expression level in mouse primary dopamine (DA) neurons compared to a derivative that is excluded from the nucleus. Moreover, by RNA sequencing we analyzed the extent of genome-wide effects on gene expression resulting from expression of human α-synuclein in primary mouse DA neurons. The results implicated the transcription factor Nurr1 as a key dysregulated target of α-synuclein toxicity. Forced Nurr1 expression restored the expression of hundreds of dysregulated genes in primary DA neurons expressing α-synuclein, and therefore prompted us to test the possibility that Nurr1 can be pharmacologically targeted by bexarotene, a ligand for the retinoid X receptor that forms heterodimers with Nurr1. Although our data demonstrated that bexarotene was ineffective in neuroprotection in rats in vivo, the results revealed that bexarotene has the capacity to coregulate subsets of Nurr1 target genes including the receptor tyrosine kinase subunit Ret. Moreover, bexarotene was able to restore dysfunctional Ret-dependent neurotrophic signaling in α-synuclein-overexpressing mouse DA neurons. These data highlight the role of the Nurr1-Ret signaling pathway as a target of α-synuclein toxicity and suggest that retinoid X receptor ligands with appropriate pharmacological properties could have therapeutic potential in Parkinson's disease. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
The Journal of Neuroscience
volume
35
issue
42
pages
14370 - 14385
publisher
Society for Neuroscience
external identifiers
  • pmid:26490873
  • wos:000366052700023
  • scopus:84944936972
ISSN
1529-2401
DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1155-15.2015
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ef5b6dff-0210-4ae2-bc50-f397da5ff003 (old id 8148671)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26490873?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:30:19
date last changed
2023-10-12 06:48:59
@article{ef5b6dff-0210-4ae2-bc50-f397da5ff003,
  abstract     = {{α-synuclein, a protein enriched in Lewy bodies and highly implicated in neurotoxicity in Parkinson's disease, is distributed both at nerve terminals and in the cell nucleus. Here we show that a nuclear derivative of α-synuclein induces more pronounced changes at the gene expression level in mouse primary dopamine (DA) neurons compared to a derivative that is excluded from the nucleus. Moreover, by RNA sequencing we analyzed the extent of genome-wide effects on gene expression resulting from expression of human α-synuclein in primary mouse DA neurons. The results implicated the transcription factor Nurr1 as a key dysregulated target of α-synuclein toxicity. Forced Nurr1 expression restored the expression of hundreds of dysregulated genes in primary DA neurons expressing α-synuclein, and therefore prompted us to test the possibility that Nurr1 can be pharmacologically targeted by bexarotene, a ligand for the retinoid X receptor that forms heterodimers with Nurr1. Although our data demonstrated that bexarotene was ineffective in neuroprotection in rats in vivo, the results revealed that bexarotene has the capacity to coregulate subsets of Nurr1 target genes including the receptor tyrosine kinase subunit Ret. Moreover, bexarotene was able to restore dysfunctional Ret-dependent neurotrophic signaling in α-synuclein-overexpressing mouse DA neurons. These data highlight the role of the Nurr1-Ret signaling pathway as a target of α-synuclein toxicity and suggest that retinoid X receptor ligands with appropriate pharmacological properties could have therapeutic potential in Parkinson's disease.}},
  author       = {{Volakakis, Nikolaos and Tiklova, Katarina and Decressac, Mickael and Papathanou, Maria and Mattsson, Bengt and Gillberg, Linda and Nobre, André and Björklund, Anders and Perlmann, Thomas}},
  issn         = {{1529-2401}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{42}},
  pages        = {{14370--14385}},
  publisher    = {{Society for Neuroscience}},
  series       = {{The Journal of Neuroscience}},
  title        = {{Nurr1 and Retinoid X Receptor Ligands Stimulate Ret Signaling in Dopamine Neurons and Can Alleviate α-Synuclein Disrupted Gene Expression.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1155-15.2015}},
  doi          = {{10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1155-15.2015}},
  volume       = {{35}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}