Neuroinflammatory changes increase the impact of stressors on neuronal function.

In the last few years, several research groups have reported that neuroinflammation is one feature common to several neurodegenerative diseases and that similar, although perhaps less profound, neuroinflammatory changes also occur with age. Age is the greatest risk factor in many neurodegenerative diseases, and the possibility exists that the underlying age-related neuroinflammation may contribute to this increased risk. Several animal models have been used to examine this possibility, and it is now accepted that, under experimental conditions in which microglial activation is up-regulated, responses to stressors are exacerbated. In the present article, these findings are discussed and data are presented from in vitro and in vivo experiments which reveal that responses to Abeta (amyloid beta-peptide) are markedly up-regulated in the presence of LPS (lipopolysaccharide). These, and previous findings, point to a vulnerability associated with inflammation and suggest that, even though inflammation may not be the primary cause of neurodegenerative disease, its treatment may decelerate disease progression.

Decreased neuronal CD200 expression in IL-4-deficient mice results in increased neuroinflammation in response to lipopolysaccharide.

Maintenance of the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the brain, which is affected by the activation state of microglia, is important for maintenance of neuronal function. Evidence has suggested that IL-4 plays an important neuromodulatory role and has the ability to decrease lipopolysaccharide-induced microglial activation and the production of IL-1beta. We have also demonstrated that CD200-CD200R interaction is involved in immune homeostasis in the brain. Here, we investigated the anti-inflammatory role of IL-4 and, using in vitro and in vivo analysis, established that the effect of lipopolysaccharide was more profound in IL-4(-/-), compared with wildtype, mice. Intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide exerted a greater inhibitory effect on exploratory behaviour in IL-4(-/-), compared with wildtype, mice and this was associated with evidence of microglial activation. We demonstrate that the increase in microglial activation is inversely related to CD200 expression. Furthermore, CD200 was decreased in neurons prepared from IL-4(-/-) mice, whereas stimulation with IL-4 enhanced CD200 expression. Importantly, neurons prepared from wildtype, but not from IL-4(-/-), mice attenuated the lipopolysaccharide-induced increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine production by glia. These findings suggest that the neuromodulatory effect of IL-4, and in particular its capacity to maintain microglia in a quiescent state, may result from its ability to upregulate CD200 expression on neurons.

The deficit in long-term potentiation induced by chronic administration of amyloid-beta is attenuated by treatment of rats with a novel phospholipid-based drug formulation, VP025.

Amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides, the primary component of the amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease (AD), exert profound effects on neurons in vitro and negatively impact on neuronal function in vivo. One of the consequences of increased Abeta in the brain, either as a result of overexpression of the precursor amyloid precursor protein in transgenic mice, or injection into the brain is a decrease in one form of synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus. Here we investigated the effect of infusion of Abeta for 28 days on LTP in dentate gyrus of rats and demonstrate that it was profoundly decreased compared with control-treated rats. We show that this effect is accompanied by increased activity of caspase 3, which is an indicator of cell stress. Significantly these changes were attenuated in animals which were pretreated with particles incorporating phosphatidylglycerol (VP025) and the evidence indicated that even when treatment was given 2 weeks after the start of the Abeta infusion, VP025 was capable of attenuating Abeta-induced changes. The evidence suggests that activation of caspase 3 was mediated by an Abeta-induced increase in sphingomyelinase, with the subsequent production of ceramide which is known to have a detrimental effect on neuronal function.

Treatment with dexamethasone and vitamin D3 attenuates neuroinflammatory age-related changes in rat hippocampus.

Among the changes which occur in the brain with age is an increase in hippocampal concentration of proinflammatory cytokines like interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and an increase in IL-1beta-induced signaling. Here we demonstrate that the increase in IL-1beta concentration is accompanied by an increase in expression of IL-1 type I receptor (IL-1RI) and an age-related increase in microglial activation, as shown by increased expression of the cell surface marker, major histocompatibility complex II (MHCII) and increased MHCII staining. The evidence indicates that these age-related changes were abrogated in hippocampus of aged rats treated with dexamethasone and vitamin D3. Similarly, the age-related increases in activation of the stress-activated protein kinase, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), as well as caspase-3 and PARP were all attenuated in hippocampal tissue prepared from rats that received dexamethasone and vitamin D3. The data indicate that dexamethasone and vitamin D3 ameliorated the age-related increase in IFNgamma and suggest that IFNgamma may be the trigger leading to microglial activation, since it increases MHCII mRNA and IL-1beta release from cultured glia. In parallel with its ability to decrease microglial activation in vivo, we report that treatment of cultured glia with dexamethasone and vitamin D3 blocked the lipopolysaccharide increased MHCII mRNA and IL-1beta concentration, while the IL-1beta-induced increases in activation of JNK and caspase 3 in cultured neurons were also reversed by treatment with dexamethasone and vitamin D3. The data suggest that the antiinflammatory effect of dexamethasone and vitamin D3 derives from their ability to downreguate microglial activation.