Erythropoietin increases neuronal NDPKA expression, and NDPKA up-regulation as well as exogenous application protects cortical neurons from in vitro ischemia-related insults.

Using proteomics, we identified nucleoside diphosphate kinase A (NDPKA; also known as NME/NM23 nucleoside diphosphate kinase 1: NME1) to be up-regulated in primary cortical neuronal cultures by erythropoietin (EPO) preconditioning. To investigate a neuroprotective role of NDPKA in neurons, we used a RNAi construct to knock-down and an adenoviral vector to overexpress the protein in cortical neuronal cultures prior to exposure to three ischemia-related injury models; excitotoxicity (L-glutamic acid), oxidative stress (hydrogen peroxide), and in vitro ischemia (oxygen-glucose deprivation). NDPKA down-regulation had no effect on neuronal viability following injury. By contrast, NDPKA up-regulation increased neuronal survival in all three-injury models. Similarly, treatment with NDPKA recombinant protein increased neuronal survival, but only against in vitro ischemia and excitotoxicity. These findings indicate that the NDPKA protein may confer a neuroprotective advantage following injury. Furthermore, as exogenous NDPKA protein was neuroprotective, it suggests that a cell surface receptor may be activated by NDPKA leading to a protective cell-signaling response. Taken together both NDPKAs intracellular and extracellular neuroprotective actions suggest that the protein is a legitimate therapeutic target for the design of drugs to limit neuronal death following stroke and other forms of brain injury.

Is cholesterol and amyloid-ß stress induced CD147 expression a protective response? Evidence that extracellular cyclophilin a mediated neuroprotection is reliant on CD147.

The CD147 protein is a ubiquitous multifunctional membrane receptor. Expression of CD147, which is regulated by sterol carrier protein, reportedly modulates amyloid-ß (Aß), the neurotoxic peptide implicated in neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Given that high fat/cholesterol is linked to amyloid deposition in AD, we investigated if cholesterol and/or Aß can alter CD147 expression in rat cortical neuronal cultures. Water-soluble cholesterol and Aß42 dose-dependently increased CD147 protein expression, but reduced FL-AßPP protein expression. Cholesterol and Aß42 treatment also increased lactate dehydrogenase release but to varying degrees. Upregulation of CD147 expression was probably mediated by oxidative stress, as H2O2 (3 µM) also induced CD147 protein expression in neuronal cultures. In light of these findings, we investigated if CD147 induction was cytoprotective, a compensatory response to injury, or alternatively, a cell death signal. To this end, we used recombinant adenovirus to overexpress human CD147 (in SH-SY5Y cells and primary cortical neurons), and pre-treated cultures with or without recombinant cyclophilin A (rCYPA) protein, prior to Aß42 exposure. We showed that increased CD147 expression protected against Aß42, only when rCYPA protein was added to neuronal cultures. Together, our findings reveal potentially important relationships between cholesterol loading, CD147 expression, Aß toxicity, and the putative involvement of CYPA protein in neuroprotection in AD.

Evidence that the LRRK2 ROC domain Parkinson's disease-associated mutants A1442P and R1441C exhibit increased intracellular degradation.

Mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (lrrk2) gene are the leading genetic cause of Parkinson's disease (PD). In characterizing the novel ROC domain mutant A1442P, we compared its steady-state protein levels, propensity to aggregate, and toxicity with the pathogenic R1441C mutant and wild-type (WT) LRRK2. Mutant (R1441C and A1442P) and WT LRRK2 fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) and FLAG were transiently expressed in HEK293 cells using plasmid constructs. Western analysis and fluorescence microscopy consistently demonstrated lower mutant LRRK2 protein levels compared with WT. A time-course expression study using flow cytometry showed that WT LRRK2 expression increased initially but then plateaued by 72 hr. Conversely, R1441C and A1442P mutant expression attained 85% and 74% of WT levels at 24 hr but fell to 68% and 55% of WT levels by 72 hr, respectively. We found that proteasome inhibition markedly increased mutant LRRK2 to levels approaching those of WT. Taken together, our findings reveal increased intracellular degradation for both mutants. Furthermore, the impact of mutant and WT LRRK2 expression on HEK293 cell viability was assessed under normative and oxidative (hydrogen peroxide) conditions and found not to differ. Expression of WT and mutant LRRK2 protein gave rise to intracellular aggregates of similar appearance and cellular localization. In summary, we provide evidence that the novel A1442P mutant and the previously investigated R1441C pathogenic mutant exhibit increased intracellular degradation, a property reportedly demonstrated for the pathogenic LRRK2 kinase domain mutant I2020T.