A microbiome-dependent gut-brain pathway regulates motivation for exercise.

Exercise exerts a wide range of beneficial effects for healthy physiology1. However, the mechanisms regulating an individual's motivation to engage in physical activity remain incompletely understood. An important factor stimulating the engagement in both competitive and recreational exercise is the motivating pleasure derived from prolonged physical activity, which is triggered by exercise-induced neurochemical changes in the brain. Here, we report on the discovery of a gut-brain connection in mice that enhances exercise performance by augmenting dopamine signalling during physical activity. We find that microbiome-dependent production of endocannabinoid metabolites in the gut stimulates the activity of TRPV1-expressing sensory neurons and thereby elevates dopamine levels in the ventral striatum during exercise. Stimulation of this pathway improves running performance, whereas microbiome depletion, peripheral endocannabinoid receptor inhibition, ablation of spinal afferent neurons or dopamine blockade abrogate exercise capacity. These findings indicate that the rewarding properties of exercise are influenced by gut-derived interoceptive circuits and provide a microbiome-dependent explanation for interindividual variability in exercise performance. Our study also suggests that interoceptomimetic molecules that stimulate the transmission of gut-derived signals to the brain may enhance the motivation for exercise.

Translational regulation of δ-tubulin through its 5'-untranslated region.

BACKGROUND: δ-tubulin - a member of tubulin superfamily, is found in a subset of eukaryotes including human where it has a role in centriole maturation. The mutation in the gene results in a disorganized microtubule triplet arrangement leading to formation of defective centriole. Since centriole maturation is a periodic event, it will be interesting to see if δ-tubulin is also regulated in a cell cycle dependent manner. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this regard we show that the abundance of δ-tubulin mRNA remains unchanged throughout the cell cycle. However, the protein level varies periodically with a significantly higher expression in S-phase, implying regulation at the level of translation. Sequence analysis establishes the presence of a 90-base long conserved region, including a consensus motif of nine residues in the 5´-untranslated region (5´-UTR) of δ-tubulin transcript. The deletion analysis of the conserved region using luciferase reporter assay system confirms its strong inhibitory effect on translation. Interestingly, microtubule associated protein 4 (MAP4) is found to interact specifically with the 90-base long conserved region in the 5´-UTR and possibly responsible, at least partially, for the translation inhibitory activity of the UTR. Remarkably, MAP4 interacts with δ-tubulin in a periodic manner at protein level also. CONCLUSION: The results reported here show that δ-tubulin protein expression is regulated at posttranscriptional level and strongly suggest the role of MAP4 in modulation of both abundance and function of δ-tubulin.

PMO-based let-7c site blocking oligonucleotide (SBO) mediated utrophin upregulation in mdx mice, a therapeutic approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Upregulation of utrophin, a dystrophin related protein, is considered a promising therapeutic approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Utrophin expression is repressed at the post-transcriptional level by a set of miRNAs, among which let-7c is evolutionarily highly conserved. We designed PMO-based SBOs complementary to the let-7c binding site in UTRN 3'UTR, with the goal of inhibiting let-7c interaction with UTRN mRNA and thus upregulating utrophin. We used the C2C12UTRN5'luc3' reporter cell line in which the 5'- and 3'-UTRs of human UTRN sequences flank luciferase, for reporter assays and the C2C12 cell line for utrophin western blots, to independently evaluate the site blocking efficiency of a series of let-7c PMOs in vitro. Treatment of one-month old mdx mice with the most effective let-7c PMO (i.e. S56) resulted in ca. two-fold higher utrophin protein expression in skeletal muscles and the improvement in dystrophic pathophysiology in mdx mice, in vivo. In summary, we show that PMO-based let-7c SBO has potential applicability for upregulating utrophin expression as a therapeutic approach for DMD.

Genome Editing-Mediated Utrophin Upregulation in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Stem Cells.

Utrophin upregulation is considered a promising therapeutic strategy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). A number of microRNAs (miRNAs) post-transcriptionally regulate utrophin expression by binding their cognate sites in the 3' UTR. Previously we have shown that miRNA: UTRN repression can be alleviated using miRNA let-7c site blocking oligonucleotides (SBOs) to achieve utrophin upregulation and functional improvement in mdx mice. Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing to delete five miRNA binding sites (miR-150, miR-296-5p, miR-133b, let-7c, miR-196b) clustered in a 500 bp inhibitory miRNA target region (IMTR) within the UTRN 3' UTR, for achieving higher expression of endogenous utrophin. Deleting the UTRN IMTR in DMD patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (DMD-hiPSCs) resulted in ca. 2-fold higher levels of utrophin protein. Differentiation of the UTRN edited DMD-hiPSCs (UTRNΔIMTR) by MyoD overexpression resulted in increased sarcolemmal α-sarcoglycan staining consistent with improved dystrophin glycoprotein complex (DGC) restoration. These results demonstrate that CRISPR/Cas9-based UTRN genome editing offers a novel utrophin upregulation therapeutic strategy applicable to all DMD patients, irrespective of the dystrophin mutation status.

Author Correction: High-throughput identification of post-transcriptional utrophin up-regulators for Duchenne muscle dystrophy (DMD) therapy.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

High-throughput identification of post-transcriptional utrophin up-regulators for Duchenne muscle dystrophy (DMD) therapy.

Upregulation of endogenous utrophin offers great promise for treating DMD, as it can functionally compensate for the lack of dystrophin caused by DMD gene mutations, without the immunogenic concerns associated with delivering dystrophin. However, post-transcriptional repression mechanisms targeting the 5' and 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of utrophin mRNA significantly limit the magnitude of utrophin upregulation achievable by promoter activation. Using a utrophin 5'3'UTR reporter assay, we performed a high-throughput screen (HTS) for small molecules capable of relieving utrophin post-transcriptional repression. We identified 27 hits that were ranked using a using an algorithm that we designed for hit prioritization that we call Hit to Lead Prioritization Score (H2LPS). The top 10 hits were validated using an orthogonal assay for endogenous utrophin expression. Evaluation of the top scoring hit, Trichostatin A (TSA), demonstrated utrophin upregulation and functional improvement in the mdx mouse model of DMD. TSA and the other small molecules identified here represent potential starting points for DMD drug discovery efforts.

Functional improvement of dystrophic muscle by repression of utrophin: let-7c interaction.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a fatal genetic disease caused by an absence of the 427kD muscle-specific dystrophin isoform. Utrophin is the autosomal homolog of dystrophin and when overexpressed, can compensate for the absence of dystrophin and rescue the dystrophic phenotype of the mdx mouse model of DMD. Utrophin is subject to miRNA mediated repression by several miRNAs including let-7c. Inhibition of utrophin: let-7c interaction is predicted to 'repress the repression' and increase utrophin expression. We developed and tested the ability of an oligonucleotide, composed of 2'-O-methyl modified bases on a phosphorothioate backbone, to anneal to the utrophin 3'UTR and prevent let-7c miRNA binding, thereby upregulating utrophin expression and improving the dystrophic phenotype in vivo. Suppression of utrophin: let-7c interaction using bi-weekly intraperitoneal injections of let7 site blocking oligonucleotides (SBOs) for 1 month in the mdx mouse model for DMD, led to increased utrophin expression along with improved muscle histology, decreased fibrosis and increased specific force. The functional improvement of dystrophic muscle achieved using let7-SBOs suggests a novel utrophin upregulation-based therapeutic strategy for DMD.