Neurobiology of Disease (Oct 2022)

Prions induce an early Arc response and a subsequent reduction in mGluR5 in the hippocampus

  • Daniel Ojeda-Juárez,
  • Jessica A. Lawrence,
  • Katrin Soldau,
  • Donald P. Pizzo,
  • Emily Wheeler,
  • Patricia Aguilar-Calvo,
  • Helen Khuu,
  • Joy Chen,
  • Adela Malik,
  • Gail Funk,
  • Percival Nam,
  • Henry Sanchez,
  • Michael D. Geschwind,
  • Chengbiao Wu,
  • Gene W. Yeo,
  • Xu Chen,
  • Gentry N. Patrick,
  • Christina J. Sigurdson

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 172
p. 105834

Abstract

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Synapse dysfunction and loss are central features of neurodegenerative diseases, caused in part by the accumulation of protein oligomers. Amyloid-β, tau, prion, and α-synuclein oligomers bind to the cellular prion protein (PrPC), resulting in the activation of macromolecular complexes and signaling at the post-synapse, yet the early signaling events are unclear. Here we sought to determine the early transcript and protein alterations in the hippocampus during the pre-clinical stages of prion disease. We used a transcriptomic approach focused on the early-stage, prion-infected hippocampus of male wild-type mice, and identify immediate early genes, including the synaptic activity response gene, Arc/Arg3.1, as significantly upregulated. In a longitudinal study of male, prion-infected mice, Arc/Arg-3.1 protein was increased early (40% of the incubation period), and by mid-disease (pre-clinical), phosphorylated AMPA receptors (pGluA1-S845) were increased and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR5 dimers) were markedly reduced in the hippocampus. Notably, sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD) post-mortem cortical samples also showed low levels of mGluR5 dimers. Together, these findings suggest that prions trigger an early Arc response, followed by an increase in phosphorylated GluA1 and a reduction in mGluR5 receptors.

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