A neuronal isoform of protein kinase G couples mitogen-activated protein kinase nuclear import to axotomy-induced long-term hyperexcitability in Aplysia sensory neurons.

The induction of a long-term hyperexcitability (LTH) in vertebrate nociceptive sensory neurons (SNs) after nerve injury is an important contributor to neuropathic pain in humans, but the signaling cascades that induce this LTH have not been identified. In particular, it is not known how injuring an axon far from the cell soma elicits changes in gene expression in the nucleus that underlie LTH. The nociceptive SNs of Aplysia (ap) develop an LTH with electrophysiological properties after axotomy similar to those of mammalian neurons and are an experimentally useful model to examine these issues. We cloned an Aplysia PKG (cGMP-dependent protein kinase; protein kinase G) that is homologous to vertebrate type-I PKGs and found that apPKG is activated at the site of injury in the axon after peripheral nerve crush. The active apPKG is subsequently retrogradely transported to the somata of the SNs, but apPKG activity does not appear in other neurons whose axons are injured. In the soma, apPKG phosphorylates apMAPK (Aplysia mitogen-activated protein kinase), resulting in its entry into the nucleus. Surprisingly, studies using recombinant proteins in vivo and in vitro indicate that apPKG directly phosphorylates the threonine moiety in the T-E-Y activation site of apMAPK when the -Y- site contains a phosphate. We used inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase, soluble guanyl cyclase, or PKG after nerve injury, and found that each prevented the appearance of the LTH. Moreover, blocking apPKG activation prevented the nuclear import of apMAPK. Consequently, the nitric oxide-PKG-MAPK pathway is a potential target for treatment of neuropathic pain.