Examining the Neural and Astroglial Protective Effects of Cellular Prion Protein Expression and Cell Death Protease Inhibition in Mouse Cerebrocortical Mixed Cultures.

Overexpression of cellular prion protein, PrP(C), has cytoprotective effects against neuronal injuries. Inhibition of cell death-associated proteases such as necrosis-linked calpain and apoptosis-linked caspase are also neuroprotective. Here, we systematically studied how PrP(C) expression levels and cell death protease inhibition affect cytotoxic challenges to both neuronal and glial cells in mouse cerebrocortical mixed cultures (CCM). Primary CCM derived from three mouse lines expressing no (PrP(C) knockout mice (PrPKO)), normal (wild-type (wt)), or high (tga20) levels of PrP(C) were subjected to necrotic challenge (calcium ionophore A23187) and apoptotic challenge (staurosporine (STS)). CCM which originated from tga20 mice provided the most robust neuron-astroglia protective effects against necrotic and early apoptotic cell death (lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release) at 6 h but subsequently lost its cytoprotective effects. In contrast, PrPKO-derived cultures displayed elevated A23187- and STS-induced cell death at 24 h. Calpain inhibitor SNJ-1945 protected against A23187 challenge at 6 h in CCM from all three mouse lines but protected only against A23187 and STS treatments by 24 h in the PrPKO line. In parallel, caspase inhibitor Z-D-DCB protected against pro-apoptotic STS challenge at 6 and 24 h. Furthermore, we also examined αII-spectrin breakdown products (primarily from neurons) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) breakdown products (from astroglia) as cytoskeletal proteolytic biomarkers. Overall, it appeared that both neurons and astroglial cells were less vulnerable to proteolytic attack during A23187 and STS challenges in tga20-derived cultures but more vulnerable in PrPKO-derived cultures. In addition, calpain and caspase inhibitors provide further protection against respective protease attacks on these neuronal and glial cytoskeletal proteins in CCM regardless of mouse-line origin. Lastly, some synergistic cytoprotective effects between PrP(C) expression and addition of cell death-linked protease inhibitors were also observed.