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α-Synuclein (αSyn) is highly abundant cytosolic protein whose conversion into insoluble fibrils is a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD) and other synucleinopathies. Despite decades of research, fundamental questions regarding αSyn biology are unresolved. Soluble, prefibrillar oligomers, not their fibrillar end products, are believed to be neurotoxic in humans and in disease models, but their mechanism of action remains unknown. Evidence from our lab and others increasingly suggests that, in healthy cells, αSyn does not exist purely as an unfolded monomer, as the field has long believed, but also as aggregation-resistant, α-helical oligomers; however, their physiological role remains controversial. Thus, my aim was twofold: to characterize toxic αSyn species in the context of mitochondrial dysfunction, a central phenotypic feature of PD; and to purify helical αSyn oligomers from human brain to enable further characterization of physiological αSyn.

The potent analgesic property of acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen makes these the most commonly used analgesics in the world. Easy accessibility and cost effectiveness of these agents are attractive to patients seeking pain relief. However, the abuse of nonnarcotic analgesics such as acetaminophen and acetylsalicylic acid by alcoholics and patients seeking to relieve dysphoric moods is well documented. These agents therefore impact on the brain neurotransmitter levels and therefore all processes involved in the synthesis and metabolism of neurotransmitters may be affected. The use of non-narcotic analgesics has been reported to reduce the incidence of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The mode of action by which acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen elicit neuroprotection is however unclear as many mechanisms of action have been inconclusively postulated. The first part of this study aims to elucidate the various mechanisms by which acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen affect the enzymes responsible for the catabolism of tryptophan, which is a precursor for the mood elevating neurotransmitter serotonin, as well as to investigate whether these agents alter the interplay between serotonin and pineal indole metabolism. The second part of this study focuses on the neuroprotective properties of acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen utilizing the neurotoxic metabolite of the kynurenine pathway, quinolinic acid and the potent Parkinsonian neurotoxin, 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+). The ability of acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen to alter TRP metabolism was determined by investigating the effects of these agents on the primary enzymes of the kynurenine pathway i.e. tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase as well as to investigate whether these agents would have any effects on 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid oxygenase. 3-Hydroxyanthranilic acid oxygenase is the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of quinolinic acid. Acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen alter tryptophan metabolism by inhibiting tryptophan 2, 3-dioxygenase and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase thus increasing the availability of tryptophan for the production of serotonin. Acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen also inhibit 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid oxygenase thus implying that these agents could reduce quinolinic acid production. Acetaminophen administration in rats induces a rise in serotonin and norepinephrine in the forebrain. Acetylsalicylic acid curtails the acetaminophen-induced rise in brain norepinephrine levels as well as enhances serotonin metabolism, indicating that analgesic preparations containing both agents would be advantageous, as this would prevent acetaminophen-induced mood elevation. The results from the pineal indole metabolism study show that acetylsalicylic acid enhances pineal metabolism of serotonin whereas acetaminophen induces an increase in melatonin levels in the pineal gland. Neuronal damage due to oxidative stress has been implicated in several neurodegenerative disorders such as AD and PD. The second part of the study aims to elucidate and characterize the mechanism by which acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen afford neuroprotection. The hippocampus is an important region of the brain responsible for memory. Agents such as quinolinic acid that are known to induce stress in this area have detrimental effects and could lead to various types of dementia. The striatum is also a vulnerable region to oxidative stress and hence (MPP+), which is toxic for this particular region of the brain, was also used as a neurotoxin. The results show that ASA and acetaminophen alone and in combination, are potent superoxide anion scavengers. In addition, the results imply that these agents offer protection against oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation induced by several neurotoxins in rat brain particularly, the hippocampus and striatum. Histological studies, using Nissl staining and Acid fuchsin, show that acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen are able to protect hippocampal neurons against quinolinic acidinduced necrotic cell death. Immunohistochemical investigations show that QA induces apoptotic cell death in the hippocampus, which is inhibited by ASA and acetaminophen. In addition, ASA and acetaminophen inhibited MPP+ induced apoptotic cell death in the rat striatum. The study also sought to elucidate possible mechanisms by which ASA and acetaminophen exert neuroprotective effects in the presence of MPP+ as these agents are shown to prevent the MPP+-induced reduction in dopamine levels. The results show that acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen inhibit the action of this neurotoxin on the mitochondrial electron transport chain, a common source of free radicals in the cell. In addition, these agents were shown to block the neurotoxic effects of MPP+ on the enzymatic defence system of the brain i.e. superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and catalase. The reduction in glutathione levels induced by MPP+ is significantly inhibited by acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen. The results imply that these agents are capable of not only scavenging free radicals but also enhance the cell defence mechanism against toxicity in the presence of MPP+. These agents also block the MPP+-induced inhibition of dopamine uptake into the cell. This would therefore reduce auto-oxidation of dopamine thus implying another mechanism by which these agents exert a neuroprotective role in MPP+-induced neurotoxicity. The discovery of neuroprotective properties of acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen is important considering the high usage of these agents and the increased incidence in neurological disorders. The findings of this thesis point to the need for clinical studies to be conducted as the results show acetylsalicylic acid and acetaminophen to have a definite role to play as antioxidants. This study therefore provides novel information regarding the neuroprotective effects of these agents and favours the use of these agents in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as AD and PD, in which oxidative stress is implicated.

The primary tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases affecting movement and cognition. In this thesis I study Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and the Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS), two parkinsonian disorders associated with accumulation of hyperphos- phorylated and abnormally folded tau protein. I contrast these two disorders with Parkinson’s disease (PD), which is associated with the accumulation of alpha-synuclein but has a genetic association with the MAPT gene encoding tau. Understanding the tauopathies to develop effective treatments will require a better grasp of the relationships between clinical syndromes and cognitive measures and how the anatomical and neurochemical networks that underlie clinical features might be altered by disease. I investigate simple clinical biomarkers, showing that a two-minute test of verbal fluency is a potential diagnostic biomarker to distinguish between PD and PSP and that the ACE-R and its subscores could play a role in monitoring cognition over time in PD, PSP and CBS. I assess the implementation of network analysis in Functional Mag- netic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data, introduce Maybrain software for graphical network analysis and visualisation. I go on to show an overlap between graph theory network measures and I identify three main factors underlying graph network measures of: efficiency and distance, hub characteristics, network community measures. I apply these measures in PD, PSP and the CBS. All three diseases caused a loss of functional connectivity in com- parison to the control group that was concentrated in more highly connected brain regions and in longer distance connections. In ad- dition, widely localised cognitive function of verbal fluency co-varied with the connection strength in highly connected regions across PD, PSP and CBS. To take this further, I investigated specific functional covariance networks. All three disease groups showed reduced connectivity between the basal ganglia network and other networks, and between the anterior salience network and other networks. Localised areas of increased co- variance suggest a breakdown of network boundaries which correlated with motor severity in PSP and CBS, and duration of disease in CBS. I explore the link between gene expression of the tau gene MAPT and its effects on functional connectivity showing that the expression of MAPT correlated with connection strength in highly connected hub regions that were more susceptible to a loss of connection strength in PD and PSP. I conclude by discussing how tau protein aggregates and soluble tau oligomers may explain the changes in functional brain networks. The primary tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases affecting movement and cognition. In this thesis I study Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) and the Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS), two parkinsonian disorders associated with accumulation of hyperphos- phorylated and abnormally folded tau protein. I contrast these two disorders with Parkinson’s disease (PD), which is associated with the accumulation of alpha-synuclein but has a genetic association with the MAPT gene encoding tau. Understanding the tauopathies to develop effective treatments will require a better grasp of the relationships between clinical syndromes and cognitive measures and how the anatomical and neurochemical networks that underlie clinical features might be altered by disease. I investigate simple clinical biomarkers, showing that a two-minute test of verbal fluency is a potential diagnostic biomarker to distinguish between PD and PSP and that the ACE-R and its subscores could play a role in monitoring cognition over time in PD, PSP and CBS. I assess the implementation of network analysis in Functional Mag- netic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data, introduce Maybrain software for graphical network analysis and visualisation. I go on to show an overlap between graph theory network measures and I identify three main factors underlying graph network measures of: efficiency and distance, hub characteristics, network community measures. I apply these measures in PD, PSP and the CBS. All three diseases caused a loss of functional connectivity in com- parison to the control group that was concentrated in more highly connected brain regions and in longer distance connections. In ad- dition, widely localised cognitive function of verbal fluency co-varied with the connection strength in highly connected regions across PD, PSP and CBS. To take this further, I investigated specific functional covariance networks. All three disease groups showed reduced connectivity between the basal ganglia network and other networks, and between the anterior salience network and other networks. Localised areas of increased co- variance suggest a breakdown of network boundaries which correlated with motor severity in PSP and CBS, and duration of disease in CBS. I explore the link between gene expression of the tau gene MAPT and its effects on functional connectivity showing that the expression of MAPT correlated with connection strength in highly connected hub regions that were more susceptible to a loss of connection strength in PD and PSP. I conclude by discussing how tau protein aggregates and soluble tau oligomers may explain the changes in functional brain networks.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative motor disorder, whose clinical features are rest tremor, bradykinesia, muscular rigidity and postural instability. Although most reported cases are sporadic, a handful of familial cases and their causative genes have been identified. Loss-of-function mutations in DJ-1, one of these genes, are responsible for 1% of familial PD cases. Our laboratory has previously reported that DJ-1- lacking neurons are sensitive to oxidative stress, induced by hydrogen peroxide or the neurotoxin MPTP. To investigate the possible mechanisms through which DJ-1 protects against oxidative stress, we performed a proteomic screen and identified Von Hippel Lindau (VHL) and Paraoxonase2 (PON2) as potential DJ-1 interacting partners. VHL is an E3 ubiquitin ligase which, in normal conditions, poly-ubiquitinates HIF-1 , a subunit of a master hypoxic/oxidative stress transcription factor, whose function is protective in oxidative and hypoxic stresses. In the present study, we provided further evidence of interaction of DJ-1 with VHL. We also demonstrated that HIF-1 protein level, as an indicator of VHL activity, is lower in cells lacking DJ-1, suggesting the inhibitory role of DJ-1 on VHL. Our in vitro studies also showed that DJ-1 inhibits ubiquitin ligase activity of VHL on HIF-1 by reducing the VHL-HIF-1 interaction. Importantly, accumulation of HIF-1 protects embryonic cortical neurons against MPP+ induced neuronal death. Finally, we confirmed the impairment of HIF-1 response to oxidative stress in human lymphoblastoids of DJ-1-linked PD cases. In the second part of this study, we demonstrated the interaction of DJ-1 and PON2. Interestingly, PON2 lactonase activity is reduced in DJ-1 deficient cells which could be rescued by re-introduction of DJ-1, suggesting a modulating role of DJ-1 on PON2 activity. In addition, PON2 deficiency, like DJ-1 deficiency, hypersensitizes neurons to MPP+, which could be rescued by over-expression of PON2 in both cases. Taken together, our data provide evidence that DJ-1 exerts its protective role by inhibiting VHL activity, enhancing HIF-1 stability, and increasing PON2 pro-survival function in PD models.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by the progressive loss of dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Mechanisms regulating this neurodegeneration, however, are unclear. Evidence from PD pathology and models of PD, indicate mitochondrial disfunction triggers several death signalling pathways. Accordingly, in vivo and in vitro mitochondrial stress models of PD were employed to explore the role of two divergent molecular influences on dopaminergic neuronal survival. We examined neuroinflammatory and death signalling pathways arising from MPTP-induced mitochondrial stress. Interferon-gamma (IFN-ɣ) is a cytokine known to activate cellular components of inflammation, including microglia of the central nervous system (CNS). Results of a screen for cytokines in PD patient plasma revealed elevated levels of IFN-ɣ, suggesting a correlation between IFN-ɣ and PD associated DA cell death. In an MPTP mouse model of PD, germline deletion of IFN-ɣ improved survival of DA neurons and the nigrostriatal system, along with a reduction in microglia activation. Employing a survival co-culture system of neurons and microglia, it was found that neutralizing IFN-ɣ reduced DA cell loss induced by the mitochondrial complex I inhibitor, rotenone. DA cell death required localized microglia, activated through the IFN-ɣ-receptor (IFN-ɣ-R), with DA survival inversely proportional to IFN-ɣ expression, found to be up-regulated following rotenone. Investigation of the calpain-Cdk5-MEF2 signalling pathway in the MPTP model of DA cell death, motivated an examination of the nuclear orphan receptor, Nur77, following a review of potential MEF2 regulatory targets. MPTP induced a reduction in Nur77 mRNA from basal ii levels in SNc tissue, further regulated by ectopic Nur77 expression. These results strengthened our new model of MEF2 Nur77 regulation in DA neurons. In MPP+/MPTP DA survival experiments, loss in germline Nur77 expression presented an elevation in DA neuronal death both in vitro and in vivo, with a greater impairment in the nigrostriatal circuitry in comparison with normal expressing animals and cells. Dopaminergic supersensitivity related to Nur77 deficiency was attenuated with the ectopic expression of AV-Nur77 in vivo. These opposing mediators of survival yield new mechanisms by which DA neurons die, suggesting a mutitargeting approach to halt the progression of DA cell death.

Mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated as one of the primary causes of Parkinson's disease (PD). The proteins PINK1, a serine-threonine kinase, and Parkin, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, are mutated in many genetic cases of PD. In healthy individuals, Parkin is recruited to damaged mitochondria and leads to autophagic degradation of mitochondria in a process termed mitophagy. Following depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane, PINK1 is stabilized on the outer mitochondrial membrane, and triggers Parkin translocation from the cytosol to mitochondria. Precisely how this phenomenon is regulated is still unclear. We employed RNA interference (RNAi) technology in a 384-well format to identify novel genes that are required for Parkin recruitment to mitochondria. We identified ATPase inhibitory factor 1 (IF1) as the strongest hit required for Parkin recruitment following treatment with the protonophore CCCP. We show that IF1 is upstream of PINK1 and Parkin, and required to sense mitochondrial damage by allowing the loss of membrane potential. In cells treated with CCCP, the absence of IF1 permits the ATP synthase to run freely in reverse, consuming ATP to maintain potential across the inner mitochondrial membrane, thus blocking PINK1 and Parkin activation. Interestingly, Rho0 cells, that lack mitochondrial DNA, have downregulated endogenous expression of IF1 in order to maintain mitochondrial function. Overexpression of IF1 in Rho0 cells results in the depletion of mitochondrial membrane potential and the initiation of mitophagy. These data demonstrate a unique role for IF1 in the regulation of mitochondrial quality control that has not been explored in the etiology of PD.

Chemical-induced models have revealed the crucial role of oxidative stress and mito-chondrial dysfunction in the development of Parkinson’s Disease. In this project, firstly, we in-vestigated the mechanism of action of rotenone, a commercialized pesticide that was previously described to reproduce the bradykinetic dopaminergic neurodegeneration symptoms of Parkin-son’s Disease in zebrafish by inhibition of the mitochondrial complex I. We found out that rote-none caused change in the morphology of the zebrafish dopaminergic mitochondrial network. We also observed the altered expression of various genes involves in mitochondrial fusion and fission in response to rotenone exposure. Secondly, to develop the use of adult zebrafish as a toxin-based model for Parkinson’s Disease, we sought to minimize any off-target effects by exposure of rotenone specifically to the brain. We demonstrated that microinjection of rotenone into the forebrain ventricular zone of adult zebrafish decreases the number of dopaminergic neurons. However, behavioural tests suggested that did not translate into locomotor impairment in these fish. Taken together, these results gave us more information about the potential use of zebrafish to study the physiological mechanism leading to dopaminergic degeneration and allow for the development of therapeutic strategies for Parkinson’s Disease.