A Breakdown in Microglial Metabolic Reprogramming Causes Internalization Dysfunction of α-synuclein in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease

Overview

Journal J Neuroinflammation

Publisher Biomed Central

Date 2022 May 22

PMID 35599331

Authors

Jia Lu

Chenfei Wang

Xin Cheng

Ruizhi Wang

Xuehan Yan

Pengju He

Hongzhuan Chen

Zhihua Yu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The α-synuclein released by neurons activates microglia, which then engulfs α-synuclein for degradation via autophagy. Reactive microglia are a major pathological feature of Parkinson's disease (PD), although the exact role of microglia in the pathogenesis of PD remains unclear. Transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 (TRPV1) channels are nonselective cation channel protein that have been proposed as neuroprotective targets in neurodegenerative diseases.

Methods: Using metabolic profiling, microglia energy metabolism was measured including oxidative phosphorylation and aerobic glycolysis. The mRFP-GFP-tagged LC3 reporter was introduced to characterize the role of TRPV1 in microglial autophagy. α-synuclein preformed fibril (PFF) TRPV1; Cx3cr1 mouse model of sporadic PD were employed to study the capacity of TRPV1 activation to attenuate neurodegeneration process.

Results: We found that acute exposure to PFF caused microglial activation as a result of metabolic reprogramming from oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis via the AKT-mTOR-HIF-1α pathway. Activated microglia eventually reached a state of chronic PFF-tolerance, accompanied by broad defects in energy metabolism. We showed that metabolic boosting by treatment with the TRPV1 agonist capsaicin rescued metabolic impairments in PFF-tolerant microglia and also defects in mitophagy caused by disruption of the AKT-mTOR-HIF-1α pathway. Capsaicin attenuated phosphorylation of α-synuclein in primary neurons by boosting phagocytosis in PFF-tolerant microglia in vitro. Finally, we found that behavioral deficits and loss of dopaminergic neurons were accelerated in the PFF TRPV1; Cx3cr1 mouse model of sporadic PD. We identified defects in energy metabolism, mitophagy and phagocytosis of PFF in microglia from the substantia nigra pars compacta of TRPV1; Cx3cr1 mice.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that modulating microglial metabolism might be a new therapeutic strategy for PD.

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