ARCA2 est une ataxie autosomique récessive rare, caractérisée par une atrophie du cervelet et un léger déficit en Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ). La majorité des patients présentent des signes neurologiques supplémentaires comme l’épilepsie ou l’intolérance à l’exercice. La maladie est due à des mutations dans le gène COQ8A qui semble encoder une protéine kinase-like atypique, impliquée dans la biosynthèse du CoQ. Pour comprendre les mécanismes physiopathologiques, une souris Coq8a knock-out (KO) constitutif a été générée et récapitule les symptômes observés chez les patients. Le but de ce travail de thèse était de mieux comprendre certains aspects, notamment l’intolérance à l’exercice et l’ataxie. Malgré un déficit en CoQ dans les muscles, aucun défaut de respiration mitochondriale n’a été détecté dans un modèle cellulaire de muscle. Néanmoins, dans le cervelet, les niveaux de transcrits de 27 gènes sont dérégulés, précocement dans l’apparition de la pathologie chez les souris KO. Les voies métaboliques vont être explorées, ce qui devrait permettre de relier la fonction de COQ8A au taux de CoQ et aux symptômes observés chez les patients. / ARCA2, a rare form of recessive ataxia, is characterized by early onset progressive ataxia, cerebellar atrophy and a mild Coenzyme Q10 deficiency. Most of the patients show additional neurological signs such as epilepsy and exercise intolerance. Mutations in the COQ8A gene lead to ARCA2. COQ8A is suggested as being an unorthodox protein kinase like, with a regulatory role in CoQ biosynthesis, in mammals. To better understand ARCA2, a constitutive Coq8a knock-out (KO) mouse model was generated, which recapitulates most of the patient’s symptoms. Here we report the use of cellular models and the affected tissues to uncover the molecular signature of COQ8A loss and CoQ deficit. Despite CoQ deficit in the muscle, no mitochondrial bioenergetics defect was uncovered. In parallel, we have identified, by RT-qPCR, a key set of genes that are dysregulated in cerebellum, very early on in the pathology. We are currently investigating these pathways to uncover the link with COQ8A function. Altogether, our experiments will shed light on the early molecular events that lead to ARCA2 and may help draw a link between COQ8A function, CoQ pools and the symptoms observed in patients.

Mon projet de thèse porte sur les altérations de la réponse dopaminergique dans la maladie de Parkinson (MP). Les troubles moteur de la MP sont améliorés par la L-Dopa (précurseur de la dopamine) et/ou les agonistes dopaminergiques. Cependant, ces traitements engendrent des effets secondaires moteurs (les dyskinésies) et non-moteurs. Ainsi, environ 15% des patients atteints de la MP sous agoniste dopaminergique vont présenter des addictions comportementales avec un syndrome de sevrage, et 3 à 4% des patients traités à la L-Dopa ou à l’apomorphine développent une prise compulsive de médicament. Ces complications motrices et non-motrices des thérapies dopaminergiques, font intervenir une dysfonction du réseau des ganglions de la base. Ce travail a exploré le lien entre l’accumulation de la protéine ΔFosB et les modifications des propriétés électriques des neurones impliqués dans l’expression des dyskinésies, en utilisant une technique d’inactivation sélective des neurones exprimant ΔFosB dans le striatum de rat et de singe. Mes travaux ont également évalué chez le singe, comment la L-Dopa modifiait les taux de monoamines pour engendrer les dyskinésies. Ceci m’a permis de montrer que les structures cognitives et limbiques sont elles aussi affectées et qu’elles pourraient être directement impliqués dans les dyskinésies. Sur cette base, j’ai étudié la physiopathologie des troubles du traitement de la récompense et démontré que la L-Dopa, le traitement de référence de la MP, peut acquérir des propriétés récompensantes proches de celles de la cocaïne dans un modèle rat de la MP par surexpression de gène codant pour l’α-synucléine mutée. J’ai également utilisé des procédures d’auto-administration intraveineuse chez le rat pour montrer que le Pramipexole, un agoniste dopaminergique couramment utilisé dans le traitement de la MP, possédait des propriétés renforçantes. Ceci m’a permis de souligner que des susceptibilités individuelles sous-tendraient le développement de ces addictions comportementales. Ces découvertes ont ensuite été complétées par des expériences montrant que les altérations liées à la MP modifiaient le trait d’impulsivité des rats et que les traitements dopaminergiques pouvaient empirer ces changements. / My PhD focused on the alterations of the dopaminergic response in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Motor impairments in PD are reduced by the dopamine precursor L-Dopa and/or dopamine agonists. However, these medications elicit motor (dyskinesia) and non-motor side-effects. Up to 15% of PD patients under dopamine agonists experience behavioral addictions and withdrawal syndrome, and 3-4% of patients treated with L-Dopa or apomorphine exhibit compulsive medication intake. Both motor and non-motor complications of dopaminergic therapies involve dysfunctions in the basal ganglia network. I explored the link between deltaFosB protein accumulation and the cellular electrical properties that trigger dyskinesia by using a cell-type specific inactivation of FosB expressing neurons of the striatum in rats and monkeys. I have also investigated in monkeys how L-Dopa modifies monoaminergic functions to mediate dyskinesia and demonstrated that limbic/cognitive structures are identically affected providing a basis for a non-motor component involved in motor side effects in PD. From this, I studied the pathophysiology of addiction-like disorders by revealing that L-Dopa, the most widely-used treatment for PD, can acquire rewarding properties similar to cocaine in a viral-mediated rat model of PD. I also used self-administration procedures in rats to demonstrate the rewarding properties of Pramipexole, a dopamine agonist commonly use in the treatment of PD, and identified individual susceptibilities in the development of addiction-like disorders. These findings were followed by additional work showing that PD alterations modify the impulsivity trait of rats and that medication might worsen these changes.

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the inheritance of one mutant copy of the huntingtin gene. Mutant huntingtin protein (mHtt) contains an expanded polyglutamine repeat region near the N-terminus. Cleavage of mHtt releases an N-terminal fragment (N-mHtt) which translocates, and accumulates in the nucleus. Nuclear accumulation of N-mHtt has been directly associated with cellular toxicity. Decreased transcription is among the earliest detected changes that occur in the brains of HD patients and is consistently observed in all animal and cellular models of HD. Transcriptional dysregulation may trigger many of the perturbations that occur later in disease progression and an understanding of the effects of mHtt may lead to strategies to slow the progression of the disease. Current models of N-mHtt-mediated transcriptional dysregulation suggest that abnormal interactions between N-mHtt and transcription factors impair the ability of these transcription factors to associate at N-mHtt-affected promoters and properly regulate gene expression. We tested various aspects of these models using two N-mHtt-affected promoters in in vitro transcription assays and in two cell models of HD using techniques including overexpression of known N-mHtt-interacting transcription factors, chromatin immunoprecipitation, promoter deletion and mutation analyses and in vitro promoter binding assays. Based on our results and those in the literature, we proposed a new model of N-mHtt-mediated transcriptional dysregulation centered on the presence of N-mHtt at affected promoters. We concluded that simultaneous interaction of N-mHtt with multiple binding partners within the transcriptional machinery would explain the gene-specificity of N-mHtt-mediated transcriptional dysregulation, as well as the observation that some genes are affected early in disease progression while others are affected later. Our model explains why alleviating N-mHtt-mediated transcriptional dysregulation through overexpression of N-mHtt-interacting proteins has proven to be difficult and suggests that the most realistic strategy for restoring gene expression across the spectrum of N-mHtt affected genes is by reducing the amount of soluble nuclear N-mHtt.

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The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of pediatric bipolar disorder on child siblings. A quantitative quasi-experimental research design was used. According to family systems theory, which was used in the formation of this study, all family members are interconnected and affect each other in a variety of ways. The research questions investigated whether children demonstrated more emotional dysregulation and fewer adaptive skills when a bipolar sibling was living in the home than when there was no bipolar sibling. The matched comparison study used 2 groups of children: those with bipolar siblings and those without bipolar siblings. Parents completed the BASC-2 Parent Rating Scale in order to measure adaptive skills and emotional dysregulation in their non-bipolar children. Parents were recruited via social media parent support sites. Thirty-four families included in the study group had 1 bipolar child and at least 1 nonbipolar child living in the home; 31 families in the comparison group had no bipolar children. All children were under the age of 18, living together full time, had a biological or legal relationship, and did not have any other mental health diagnosis. A multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses. The study found that children with bipolar siblings demonstrated significantly higher levels of emotional dysregulation (both externalization and internalization) than did children without bipolar siblings. There was no significant difference in reported adaptive skills between the 2 groups of children. This study has social change implications as it identifies the emotional needs of sibling children who are routinely overlooked as needing assistance. This study provides the groundwork for clinicians and educators working in the pediatric mental health field to begin exploring potential treatments and programs for siblings of bipolar children.

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Emotional regulation is necessary to live psychologically and physically healthy. In this study I explored the associations between emotional regulation and two major constructs of cognitive sciences, time perspective and cognitive flexibility. For this purpose, I collected data online from different social media platforms. Eighty participants participated by filling in three questionnaires, Emotional regulation questionnaire, cognitive flexibility inventory and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory. The age range of participants was between 18 to 50 years with varying educational and occupational backgrounds. The results revealed that cognitive flexibility has a significant positive relationship with emotional regulation and the Present Hedonistic subscale and Future subscales found correlated positively with emotional regulation. In Line with the predictions, linear regression analyses showed that cognitive flexibility predicts emotional regulation while an aggregated measures of deviations from a balanced time perspective (DBPT) did not predict emotional regulation. A mediation analysis also suggested that cognitive flexibility has no mediating role between DBTP and emotional regulation.

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