Les homéoprotéines sont des facteurs de transcription qui en plus de leur rôle important durant le développement des métazoaires, bénéficient de fonctions autonome et non autonome-cellulaire dans le cerveau adulte. Parmi ces homéoprotéines, Engrailed1/2 (collectivement Engrailed) est exprimée dans les neurones dopaminergiques mésencéphaliques adulte, ceux-là même qui dégénèrent dans la maladie de Parkinson. Chez les souris délétées d’une copie du gène (En1+/-), une dégénérescence progressive des neurones dopaminergiques s’accompagne de symptômes moteurs et non moteurs rappelant la maladie de Parkinson, ce qui pourrait faire de ces souris un modèle nouveau et intéressant de cette maladie neurodégénérative. Des expériences de transduction de la protéine En1 dans les cellules du mésencéphale de souris démontrent son effet neuroprotecteur dans des modèles toxicologiques de la maladie de Parkinson et chez les souris En1+/-, menant à l’hypothèse qu’Engrailed est important dans la physiopathologie de cette maladie. L’essentiel de ce travail de thèse s’inscrit dans la compréhension des mécanismes d’action de l’homéoprotéine Engrailed dans les neurones dopaminergiques mésencéphaliques. L’activité physiologique importante de ces neurones et le stress métabolique oxydant qui est généré touche plusieurs compartiments cellulaires, dont le noyau. La stabilité du génome semble être un aspect majeur de l’action d’Engrailed dans ces neurones. D’abord contre les effets délétères du stress oxydatif sur l’intégrité de l’ADN et la structure de la chromatine, ensuite, contre l’activité génotoxique des éléments transposables LINE-1. / Homeoproteins are a major class of transcription factors that exert some of their functions through non-cell autonomous activity, due to their ability to transfer between cells. Two of these homeoproteins, En1 and En2 (collectively Engrailed) are responsible for midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neuron development, and maintenance during adulthood. En1+/- mice display a selective and progressive degeneration of the mDA neurons, reminiscent of Parkinson disease (PD). Engrailed infusion confers neurotection against cell death in several mouse models of PD, leading to the hypothesis that Engrailed could be implicated in the physiopathology of the disease. To dissect the mechanisms underlying Engrailed-mediated protection, the transcriptome of mDA neurons in En1+/- was analyzed. It was found that the loss of one En1 allele leads to severe alterations in the expression of DNA damage response and chromatin remodeling genes. The same alterations were detected and amplified in an acute mouse model of oxidative stress, suggesting that mDA neurons from En1+/- mice are less resistant to oxidative stress and, conversely, that Engrailed may protect them against oxidative stress. Indeed, Engrailed transduction into mDA neurons saves them from cell death and restores all DNA damage and epigenetic marks. A second mechanism neuroprotection by Engrailed concerns LINE-1 elements. These retrotransposons have the ability to create genomic instability through their endonuclease activity. Their direct repression by Engrailed could be part of a general protective activity against genomic instability.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra and motor deficits. Although the majority of PD cases are sporadic, several genetic defects in rare familial cases have been identified. Animal models of these genetic defects have been created and have provided unique insights into the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of PD. However, the etiology of PD is still not well understood. Here, taking advantage of the unique features offered by zebrafish, I characterized the functions of PINK1 (PTEN-induced kinase 1) gene, which is associated with recessive familial PD, in the development and survival of DA neurons. In zebrafish, antisense morpholino knockdown of pink1 did not cause a large loss of DA neurons in the ventral diencephalon (vDC), but the patterning of these neurons and their projections were perturbed. The pink1 morphants also showed impaired response to touch stimuli and reduced swimming behaviour. Moreover, the pink1 knockdown caused a significant reduction in the number of mitochondria, as well as mitochondrial morphological defects such as smaller size or loss of cristae, thus affecting mitochondrial function. These results suggest that zebrafish pink1 plays conserved important roles in the development of DA neurons and in the mitochondrial morphology and function. To better follow DA neurons after injury or administration of toxins, I generated a transgenic zebrafish line, Tg(dat:EGFP), in which the green fluorescent protein (GFP) is expressed under the control of cis-regulatory elements of dopamine transporter (dat). In Tg(dat:EGFP) fish, all major groups of DA neurons are correctly labeled with GFP, especially the ones in the vDC, which are analogous to the ascending midbrain DA neurons in mammals. In addition, we observed that the DA neurons in the vDC could partially be replaced after severe laser cell ablation. This suggests that zebrafish may have the unique capacity of regenerating DA neurons after injury. Taken together, my studies suggested that zebrafish could be a useful alternative animal model for the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying PD and for the screening of potential therapeutic compounds for PD.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra and motor deficits. Although the majority of PD cases are sporadic, several genetic defects in rare familial cases have been identified. Animal models of these genetic defects have been created and have provided unique insights into the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of PD. However, the etiology of PD is still not well understood. Here, taking advantage of the unique features offered by zebrafish, I characterized the functions of PINK1 (PTEN-induced kinase 1) gene, which is associated with recessive familial PD, in the development and survival of DA neurons. In zebrafish, antisense morpholino knockdown of pink1 did not cause a large loss of DA neurons in the ventral diencephalon (vDC), but the patterning of these neurons and their projections were perturbed. The pink1 morphants also showed impaired response to touch stimuli and reduced swimming behaviour. Moreover, the pink1 knockdown caused a significant reduction in the number of mitochondria, as well as mitochondrial morphological defects such as smaller size or loss of cristae, thus affecting mitochondrial function. These results suggest that zebrafish pink1 plays conserved important roles in the development of DA neurons and in the mitochondrial morphology and function. To better follow DA neurons after injury or administration of toxins, I generated a transgenic zebrafish line, Tg(dat:EGFP), in which the green fluorescent protein (GFP) is expressed under the control of cis-regulatory elements of dopamine transporter (dat). In Tg(dat:EGFP) fish, all major groups of DA neurons are correctly labeled with GFP, especially the ones in the vDC, which are analogous to the ascending midbrain DA neurons in mammals. In addition, we observed that the DA neurons in the vDC could partially be replaced after severe laser cell ablation. This suggests that zebrafish may have the unique capacity of regenerating DA neurons after injury. Taken together, my studies suggested that zebrafish could be a useful alternative animal model for the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying PD and for the screening of potential therapeutic compounds for PD.

No description available.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra and motor deficits. Although the majority of PD cases are sporadic, several genetic defects in rare familial cases have been identified. Animal models of these genetic defects have been created and have provided unique insights into the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of PD. However, the etiology of PD is still not well understood. Here, taking advantage of the unique features offered by zebrafish, I characterized the functions of PINK1 (PTEN-induced kinase 1) gene, which is associated with recessive familial PD, in the development and survival of DA neurons. In zebrafish, antisense morpholino knockdown of pink1 did not cause a large loss of DA neurons in the ventral diencephalon (vDC), but the patterning of these neurons and their projections were perturbed. The pink1 morphants also showed impaired response to touch stimuli and reduced swimming behaviour. Moreover, the pink1 knockdown caused a significant reduction in the number of mitochondria, as well as mitochondrial morphological defects such as smaller size or loss of cristae, thus affecting mitochondrial function. These results suggest that zebrafish pink1 plays conserved important roles in the development of DA neurons and in the mitochondrial morphology and function. To better follow DA neurons after injury or administration of toxins, I generated a transgenic zebrafish line, Tg(dat:EGFP), in which the green fluorescent protein (GFP) is expressed under the control of cis-regulatory elements of dopamine transporter (dat). In Tg(dat:EGFP) fish, all major groups of DA neurons are correctly labeled with GFP, especially the ones in the vDC, which are analogous to the ascending midbrain DA neurons in mammals. In addition, we observed that the DA neurons in the vDC could partially be replaced after severe laser cell ablation. This suggests that zebrafish may have the unique capacity of regenerating DA neurons after injury. Taken together, my studies suggested that zebrafish could be a useful alternative animal model for the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying PD and for the screening of potential therapeutic compounds for PD.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by the degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra and motor deficits. Although the majority of PD cases are sporadic, several genetic defects in rare familial cases have been identified. Animal models of these genetic defects have been created and have provided unique insights into the molecular mechanisms of the pathogenesis of PD. However, the etiology of PD is still not well understood. Here, taking advantage of the unique features offered by zebrafish, I characterized the functions of PINK1 (PTEN-induced kinase 1) gene, which is associated with recessive familial PD, in the development and survival of DA neurons. In zebrafish, antisense morpholino knockdown of pink1 did not cause a large loss of DA neurons in the ventral diencephalon (vDC), but the patterning of these neurons and their projections were perturbed. The pink1 morphants also showed impaired response to touch stimuli and reduced swimming behaviour. Moreover, the pink1 knockdown caused a significant reduction in the number of mitochondria, as well as mitochondrial morphological defects such as smaller size or loss of cristae, thus affecting mitochondrial function. These results suggest that zebrafish pink1 plays conserved important roles in the development of DA neurons and in the mitochondrial morphology and function. To better follow DA neurons after injury or administration of toxins, I generated a transgenic zebrafish line, Tg(dat:EGFP), in which the green fluorescent protein (GFP) is expressed under the control of cis-regulatory elements of dopamine transporter (dat). In Tg(dat:EGFP) fish, all major groups of DA neurons are correctly labeled with GFP, especially the ones in the vDC, which are analogous to the ascending midbrain DA neurons in mammals. In addition, we observed that the DA neurons in the vDC could partially be replaced after severe laser cell ablation. This suggests that zebrafish may have the unique capacity of regenerating DA neurons after injury. Taken together, my studies suggested that zebrafish could be a useful alternative animal model for the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying PD and for the screening of potential therapeutic compounds for PD.

The neurotoxin 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), following pretreatment with the norepinephrine transport inhibitor desipramine, selectively destroys dopaminergic neurons. When given to rats, neonatal 6-OHDA (n6-OHDA) crosses the blood-brain barrier to destroy 90-99% of dopaminergic nerves in pars compacta substantia nigra (SNpc). The n6-OHDA-lesioned rat is posed as a reasonable animal model for PD: (a) the magnitude of dopaminergic neuronal destruction is expansive, (b) mapping of dopaminergic denervation has been defined, (c) effects on dopamine (DA) receptor alterations have been elucidated (d) as well as changes in receptor sensitivity status, (e) reactive sprouting of serotoninergic innervation (i.e. hyperinnervation) has been mapped, and (f) interplay between serotoninergic and dopaminergic systems is characterized. (g) A broad range of locomotor and stereotyped behaviors has been assessed and (h) large numbers of neurochemical assessments have been attained. (i) n6-OHDA-lesioned rats survive 6-OHDA lesioning and (j) the rat is behaviorally indistinguishable from controls. Dopaminergic destruction in early ontogeny rather in adulthood is a 'treatment liability' of this model, yet other animal models have liability issues of a serious nature-the initial one being use of a neurotoxin to produce the animal model of PD. The n6-OHDA-lesioned rat is proposed as a PD model for its value in associating the SNpc dopaminergic lesion with behavioral outcomes, also for replicability of dopaminergic destruction, and the accompanying neuronal adaptations and interplay between neuronal phenotypes in brain-which provide a means to better define and understand the range of deficits and neuronal adaptations that are likely to occur in human PD.

Heterozygous mutations in the glucocerebrosidase (GBA) gene represent the most common risk factor for Parkinson’s disease (PD), a disease in which midbrain dopaminergic neurons are preferentially vulnerable. However, the mechanisms underlying this association are still unknown, mostly due to the lack of an appropriate model of study. In this thesis, we aimed at elucidating the role of heterozygous GBA mutations in PD using a specific human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based model of disease. First we developed a protocol for the efficient differentiation of hiPSCs into dopaminergic cultures, and extensively characterized the derived dopaminergic neurons which expressed multiple midbrain relevant markers and produced dopamine. Next we screened a clinical cohort of PD patients to identify carriers of GBA mutations of interest. Using for the first time hiPSCs generated from PD patients heterozygous for a GBA mutation (together with idiopathic cases and control individuals) we were able to efficiently derive dopaminergic cultures and identify relevant disease mechanisms. Upon differentiation into dopaminergic neuronal cultures, we observed retention of mutant glucocerebrosidase (GCase) protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with no change in protein levels, leading to upregulation of ER stress machinery and resulting in increased autophagic demand. At the lysosomal level, we found a reduction of GCase activity in dopaminergic neuronal cultures, and the enlargement of the lysosomal compartment in identified dopaminergic neurons suggesting a decreased capacity for protein clearance. Together, these perturbations of cellular homeostasis resulted in increased release of α-synuclein and could likely represent critical early cellular phenotypes of Parkinson's disease and explain the high risk of heterozygous GBA mutations for PD.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a debilitating movement disorder. The cardinal symptoms of PD are bradykinesia, resting tremors and rigidity. PD is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons of A9 region, substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and loss of dopaminergic terminals in striatum while the dopaminergic neurons of A10 region, ventral tegmental area (VTA) are relatively protected. Putative mechanisms, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, dysregulation of the ubiquitin proteasome system and increased oxidative stress have been hypothesized to mediate PD pathology. However, precise mechanisms that underlie selective vulnerability of SNpc dopaminergic neurons to degeneration are unknown. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the pathological mechanisms that may contribute to degeneration of SNpc dopaminergic neurons in PD. Dopaminergic neurons of SNpc are pacemakers and constant calcium entry through L-type calcium channel, Cav1.3 has been reported in these neurons during pacemaking. In addition, these neurons have poor calcium buffering capacity. Together, this leads to dysregulation of calcium homeostasis in the SNpc dopaminergic neurons leading to increased oxidative stress. Gene expression of the full length channel and the variant was investigated in the mouse midbrain and further their presence was verified in mouse SNpc and VTA and also in SNpc and VTA in the MPTP mouse model of PD. Gene expression of Cav1.3 -42 and its variant was also studied in SNpc from autopsy tissue from PD patients and age matched controls. Having studied differential expression of the calcium channels, global changes in gene expression in SNpc from the MPTP mouse model of PD and PD autopsy tissues were next examined. This is the first report of transcriptome profile alterations from SNpc in mouse model and PD tissue performed using RNA-seq. Gene expression profiles were examined from SNpc 1 day post single exposure to MPTP, in which case there is no neuronal death and 14 days after daily MPTP treatment where SNpc has undergone ~50% cell death. Further, RNA- seq was performed to study gene expression alterations in SNpc from human PD patients and age- matched controls. The RNA-seq data was taken through extensive analyses; analysed for differential gene expression, gene-set enrichment analysis, pathway analysis and network analysis. Glutaredoxin 1 (Grx1) is a thiol disulfide oxidoreductase that catalyses the deglutathionylation of proteins and is important for regulation of cellular protein thiol redox homeostasis. Down-regulation of Grx1 has been established to exacerbate neurodegeneration through impairment of cell survival signalling. Previous work from our laboratory has demonstrated that perturbation of protein thiol redox homeostasis through diamide injection into SNpc leads to development of PD pathology and motor deficits. It was therefore investigated if Grx1 down-regulation in vivo, leading to increased glutathionylation and protein thiol oxidation, could result in PD pathology. This work is thus the first study of RNA-seq based transcriptomic profile alterations in SNpc from human PD patients. This work also highlights several differences between mouse model and human PD tissue indicating that the underlying mechanisms of PD pathogenesis differ from mouse to humans in addition to developing a novel model for PD.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Physical and biological phenomena that involve oscillations on multiple time scales attract attention of mathematicians because resulting equations include a small parameter that allows for decomposing a three- or higher-dimensional dynamical system into fast/slow subsystems of lower dimensionality and analyzing them independently using geometric singular perturbation theory and other techniques. However, in most life sciences applications observed dynamics is extremely complex, no small parameter exists and this approach fails. Nevertheless, it is still desirable to gain insight into behavior of these mathematical models using the only viable alternative – ad hoc computational analysis. Current dissertation is devoted to this latter approach. Neural networks in the region of the brain called basal ganglia (BG) are capable of producing rich activity patterns. For example, burst firing, i.e. a train of action potentials followed by a period of quiescence in neurons of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in BG was shown to be related to involuntary shaking of limbs in Parkinson’s disease called tremor. The origin of tremor remains unknown; however, a few hypotheses of tremor-generation were proposed recently. The first project of this dissertation examines the BG-thalamo-cortical loop hypothesis for tremor generation by building physiologically-relevant mathematical model of tremor-related circuits with negative delayed feedback. The dynamics of the model is explored under variation of connection strength and delay parameters in the feedback loop using computational methods and data analysis techniques. The model is shown to qualitatively reproduce the transition from irregular physiological activity to pathological synchronous dynamics with varying parameters that are affected in Parkinson’s disease. Thus, the proposed model provides an explanation for the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop mechanism of tremor generation. Besides tremor-related bursting activity BG structures in Parkinson’s disease also show increased synchronized activity in the beta-band (10-30Hz) that ultimately causes other parkinsonian symptoms like slowness of movement, rigidity etc. Suppression of excessively synchronous beta-band oscillatory activity is believed to suppress hypokinetic motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. Recently, a lot of interest has been devoted to desynchronizing delayed feedback deep brain stimulation (DBS). This type of synchrony control was shown to destabilize synchronized state in networks of simple model oscillators as well as in networks of coupled model neurons. However, the dynamics of the neural activity in Parkinson’s disease exhibits complex intermittent synchronous patterns, far from the idealized synchronized dynamics used to study the delayed feedback stimulation. The second project of this dissertation explores the action of delayed feedback stimulation on partially synchronous oscillatory dynamics, similar to what one observes experimentally in parkinsonian patients. We employ a computational model of the basal ganglia networks which reproduces the fine temporal structure of the synchronous dynamics observed experimentally. Modeling results suggest that delayed feedback DBS in Parkinson’s disease may boost rather than suppresses synchronization and is therefore unlikely to be clinically successful. Single neuron dynamics may also have important physiological meaning. For instance, bistability – coexistence of two stable solutions observed experimentally in many neurons is thought to be involved in some short-term memory tasks. Bistability that occurs at the depolarization block, i.e. a silent depolarized state a neuron enters with excessive excitatory input was proposed to play a role in improving robustness of oscillations in pacemaker-type neurons. The third project of this dissertation studies what parameters control bistability at the depolarization block in the three-dimensional conductance-based neuronal model by comparing the reduced dopaminergic neuron model to the Hodgkin-Huxley model of the squid giant axon. Bifurcation analysis and parameter variations revealed that bistability is mainly characterized by the inactivation of the Na+ current, while the activation characteristics of the Na+ and the delayed rectifier K+ currents do not account for the difference in bistability in the two models.