López-González Irene, Viana Rosa, Sanz Pascual, Ferrer Isidre
Institut de Neuropatologia, Servei Anatomia Patologica, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Carrer Feixa Llarga sn, Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08907, Barcelona, Spain.
Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Jaime Roig 11, 46010, Valencia, Spain.
Mol Neurobiol. 2017 Jul;54(5):3119-3130. doi: 10.1007/s12035-016-9884-4. Epub 2016 Apr 4.
Lafora progressive myoclonus epilepsy (Lafora disease, LD) is a fatal rare autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of insoluble ubiquitinated polyglucosan inclusions in the cytoplasm of neurons, which is most commonly associated with mutations in two genes: EPM2A, encoding the glucan phosphatase laforin, and EPM2B, encoding the E3-ubiquitin ligase malin. The present study analyzes possible inflammatory responses in the mouse lines Epm2a (laforin knock-out) and Epm2b (malin knock-out) with disease progression. Increased numbers of reactive astrocytes (expressing the GFAP marker) and microglia (expressing the Iba1 marker) together with increased expression of genes encoding cytokines and mediators of the inflammatory response occur in both mouse lines although with marked genotype differences. C3ar1 and CxCl10 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are significantly increased in Epm2a mice aged 12 months when compared with age-matched controls, whereas C3ar1, C4b, Ccl4, CxCl10, Il1b, Il6, Tnfα, and Il10ra mRNAs are significantly upregulated in Epm2b at the same age. This is accompanied by increased protein levels of IL1-β, IL6, TNFα, and Cox2 particularly in Epm2b mice. The severity of inflammatory changes correlates with more severe clinical symptoms previously described in Epm2b mice. These findings show for the first time increased innate inflammatory responses in a neurodegenerative disease with polyglucosan intraneuronal deposits which increase with disease progression, in a way similar to what is seen in neurodegenerative diseases with abnormal protein aggregates. These findings also point to the possibility of using anti-inflammatory agents to mitigate the degenerative process in LD.
拉福拉进行性肌阵挛癫痫(拉福拉病,LD)是一种致命的罕见常染色体隐性神经退行性疾病,其特征是神经元细胞质中积累不溶性泛素化多聚葡萄糖包涵体,这最常与两个基因突变相关:编码葡聚糖磷酸酶拉福林的EPM2A和编码E3泛素连接酶malin的EPM2B。本研究分析了Epm2a(拉福林基因敲除)和Epm2b(malin基因敲除)小鼠品系随疾病进展可能出现的炎症反应。尽管存在明显的基因型差异,但在这两个小鼠品系中均出现了反应性星形胶质细胞(表达GFAP标志物)和小胶质细胞(表达Iba1标志物)数量增加,以及编码炎症反应细胞因子和介质的基因表达增加。与年龄匹配的对照组相比,12个月龄的Epm2a小鼠中C3ar1和CxCl10信使核糖核酸(mRNA)显著增加,而在同一年龄的Epm2b小鼠中,C3ar1、C4b、Ccl4、CxCl10、Il1b、Il6、Tnfα和Il10ra mRNA显著上调。这伴随着IL1-β、IL6、TNFα和Cox2蛋白水平的增加,尤其是在Epm2b小鼠中。炎症变化的严重程度与先前在Epm2b小鼠中描述的更严重的临床症状相关。这些发现首次表明,在一种具有多聚葡萄糖神经元内沉积的神经退行性疾病中,先天性炎症反应增加,且随疾病进展而增加,其方式类似于在具有异常蛋白质聚集体的神经退行性疾病中所见。这些发现还指出了使用抗炎药物减轻拉福拉病退变过程的可能性。