Belousov Andrei B, Nishimune Hiroshi, Denisova Janna V, Fontes Joseph D
Departments of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA.
Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2018 Feb 14;666:1-4. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.12.027. Epub 2017 Dec 12.
Neuronal gap junctional protein connexin 36 (Cx36) contributes to neuronal death following a range of acute brain insults such as ischemia, traumatic brain injury and epilepsy. Whether Cx36 contributes to neuronal death and pathological outcomes in chronic neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is not known. We show here that the expression of Cx36 is significantly decreased in lumbar segments of the spinal cord of both human ALS subjects and SOD1 mice as compared to healthy human and wild-type mouse controls, respectively. In purified neuronal cultures prepared from the spinal cord of wild-type mice, knockdown of Cx36 reduces neuronal death caused by overexpression of the mutant human SOD1-G93A protein. Taken together, these data suggest a possible contribution of Cx36 to ALS pathogenesis. A perspective for the use of blockers of Cx36 gap junction channels for ALS therapy is discussed.
神经元间隙连接蛋白连接蛋白36(Cx36)在一系列急性脑损伤(如缺血、创伤性脑损伤和癫痫)后会导致神经元死亡。目前尚不清楚Cx36是否会导致慢性神经退行性疾病(如肌萎缩侧索硬化症,ALS)中的神经元死亡和病理结果。我们在此表明,与健康人类和野生型小鼠对照相比,人类ALS患者和SOD1小鼠脊髓腰段中Cx36的表达分别显著降低。在从野生型小鼠脊髓制备的纯化神经元培养物中,敲低Cx36可减少由突变型人类SOD1 - G93A蛋白过表达引起的神经元死亡。综上所述,这些数据表明Cx36可能对ALS发病机制有影响。本文还讨论了使用Cx36间隙连接通道阻滞剂治疗ALS的前景。