Extracellular cyclic GMP and its derivatives GMP and guanosine protect from oxidative glutamate toxicity.

Cell death in response to oxidative stress plays a role in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases and can be studied in detail in the neuronal cell line HT22, where extracellular glutamate causes glutathione depletion by inhibition of the glutamate/cystine antiporter system xc(-), elevation of reactive oxygen species and eventually programmed cell death caused by cytotoxic calcium influx. Using this paradigm, we screened 54 putative extracellular peptide or small molecule ligands for effects on cell death and identified extracellular cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) as a protective substance. Extracellular cGMP was protective, whereas the cell-permeable cGMP analog 8-pCPT-cGMP or the inhibition of cGMP degradation by phosphodiesterases was toxic. Interestingly, metabolites GMP and guanosine were even more protective than cGMP and the inhibition of the conversion of GMP to guanosine attenuated its effect, suggesting that GMP offers protection through its conversion to guanosine. Guanosine increased system xc(-) activity and cellular glutathione levels in the presence of glutamate, which can be explained by transcriptional upregulation of xCT, the functional subunit of system xc(-). However, guanosine also provided protection when added late in the cell death cascade and significantly reduced the number of calcium peaking cells, which was most likely not mediated by transcriptional mechanisms. We observed no changes in the classical protective pathways such as phosphorylation of Akt, ERK1/2 or induction of Nrf2 or ATF4. We conclude that extracellular guanosine protects against endogenous oxidative stress by two probably independent mechanisms involving system xc(-) induction and inhibition of cytotoxic calcium influx.

Induction of Nrf2 and xCT are involved in the action of the neuroprotective antibiotic ceftriaxone in vitro.

In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, down-regulation of the astrocyte-specific glutamate excitatory amino acid transporter 2 is hypothesized to increase extracellular glutamate, thereby leading to excitotoxic motor neuron death. The antibiotic ceftriaxone was recently reported to induce excitatory amino acid transporter 2 and to prolong the survival of mutant superoxide dismutase 1 transgenic mice. Here we show that ceftriaxone also protects fibroblasts and the hippocampal cell line HT22, which are not sensitive to excitotoxicity, against oxidative glutamate toxicity, where extracellular glutamate blocks cystine import via the glutamate/cystine-antiporter system x(c)(-). Lack of intracellular cystine leads to glutathione depletion and cell death because of oxidative stress. Ceftriaxone increased system x(c)(-) and glutathione levels independently of its effect on excitatory amino acid transporters by induction of the transcription factor Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2), a known inducer of system x(c)(-), and the specific x(c)(-) subunit xCT. No significant effect was apparent in fibroblasts deficient in Nrf2 or xCT. Similar ceftriaxone-stimulated changes in Nrf2, system x(c)(-), and glutathione were observed in rat cortical and spinal astrocytes. In addition, ceftriaxone induced xCT mRNA expression in stem cell-derived human motor neurons. We conclude that ceftriaxone-mediated neuroprotection might relate more strongly to activation of the antioxidant defense system including Nrf2 and system x(c)(-) than to excitatory amino acid transporter induction.