Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons. The etiology of sporadic Parkinson's disease remains unknown although epidemiologic studies implicate to gene environment interaction. Progress in Parkinson's disease modeling in rodents has been achieved by administration of specific toxicants and through construction of transgenic mice harboring human a-synuclein. The pathogenic linkage between toxicant and a-synuclein appears to lie in their unique capacities to produce oxidative injury. Less well investigated is role of glial-neuronal interactions promoting oxidative damage and death of ventral midbrain dopamine neurons. We hypothesize that neuronal overexpression of vildtype human a-synuclein triggers ROS that are, in part, defended by local glial anti-oxidant responses. Over time this defense mechanism fails resulting in pathologic a-synuclein misfolding, presynaptic dopamine neuron injury and ultimately cell death. To test each facet of this hypothesis, we engineered a compound transgenic mouse to specifically overexpress human wild type a-synuclein in dopaminergic cells (SYN+/+) on the background of glial depleted glutathione peroxidase 1 (GPX-/-) and an antioxidant promoter-reporter. This compound transgenic animal (SYN+/+::GPX-/-::AREhPLAP) affords the study of and cellular locus of oxidative injury wrought by a-synuclein and the impact of impaired glial anti-oxidant capacity on dopaminergic neuron function and viability.
Three Aims have been proposed.
Aim 1. The evolution of oxidant injury in human wild type a-synuclein homozygous mice (SYN+/+::AREhPLAP).
Aim 2. Synergistic injury in SYN+/+::GPX-/-::AREhPLAP mice: a model of accelerated dopaminergic neuron compromise.
Aim 3 In which cell types does restoration ofGpx-1 mitigate environmental toxicant injury in SYN+/+::GPX-/-::AREhPLAP mice. These studies will produce clear and interpretable data concerning the role of glia anti-oxidant defense in oxidative injury elicited by a-synuclein alone and in combination with a known dopaminergic toxicant. The mechanistic information derived may enable new glial-oriented therapeutic initiatives.
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