Parkinson's disease (PD) and other age-associated neurological disorders represent one of the largest unmet medical needs in developed countries. However, the discovery of improved diagnostics and therapeutics for these disorders is hampered by incomplete understanding of underlying disease mechanisms and risk factors. Oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and protein aggregation have been implicated as major mechanisms causing dopaminergic neuronal loss in PD. Epidemiological studies have revealed an association between pesticide exposure and PD, and pesticides that cause oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, such as rotenone and paraquat, are used in cellular and animal models of PD. Furthermore, interactions between pesticides and the PD-linked gene alpha-synuclein have been postulated. Although almost 1000 pesticide active ingredients are currently marketed, these compounds have not been systematically screened for neurotoxicity in cellular or animal models of PD. The identification of pesticides that interact with alpha-synuclein to cause neurodegeneration may lead to the discovery of novel candidate risk factors and more representative disease models for PD. For this proposal, investigators at Cambria Biosciences will exploit a published moderate-to-high throughput neuronal cell-based model of PD, with the goal of identifying individual pesticides and synergistic pesticide combinations potentially involved in the pathogenesis of PD. Our established cellbased model of PD will be used to screen -approximately 350 registered pesticides to identify neurotoxic pesticides.
Our specific aims i nclude: (1a) identifying neurally-active pesticides that induce cell injury to two PD-like cell lines that stably express wild type (WT) human alpha-synuclein and mutant A53T alpha-synuclein; (1b) identifying any synergistic effects of neurotoxic pesticides in inducing cell damage in these a-synuclein-expressing neuronal cells; and (2) characterizing the activity of these neurotoxic pesticides and pesticide combinations using primary mature mesencephalic DA neurons. The identified neurotoxic pesticides will be employed in follow-on Phase II studies for the development of improved in vitro and in vivo PD models, which will ultimately be used to screen for neuroprotective compounds as part of a comprehensive drug discovery program. ? ? ?
