Interleukin-10 protects lipopolysaccharide-induced neurotoxicity in primary midbrain cultures by inhibiting the function of NADPH oxidase.

The role of anti-inflammatory cytokines in Parkinson's disease is not completely understood. In this study, using mesencephalic neuron-glia cultures, we report that both pretreatment and post-treatment of rat mesencephalic neuron-glia cultures with interleukin (IL)-10, a natural immune modulator, reduced lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced DA neurotoxicity. The main purpose of this study was to elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying IL-10-elicited neuroprotection. IL-10 significantly inhibited LPS-induced production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, nitric oxide, and extracellular superoxide in microglia cells. In addition, using reconstituted neuron and glia cell cultures, IL-10 was shown to be neuroprotective only in the presence of microglia. More importantly, IL-10 failed to protect DA neurons in cultures from mice lacking NADPH oxidase (PHOX), a key enzyme for extracellular superoxide production in immune cells, suggesting the critical role of PHOX in IL-10 neuroprotection. This conclusion was further supported by the finding that IL-10 inhibited LPS-induced translocation of the cytosolic subunit of NADPH oxidase p47(phox) to the membrane. When the Janus tyrosine kinase (JAK) 1 signaling pathway was blocked, IL-10 failed to attenuate LPS-induced superoxide production, indicating that the JAK1 signaling cascade mediates the inhibitory effect of IL-10. Together, our results suggest that IL-10 inhibits LPS-induced DA neurotoxicity through the inhibition of PHOX activity in a JAK1-dependent mechanism.