Suicide transport blockade of motor neuron survival generates a focal graded injury and functional deficit
Allison S.Liang
Joanna E.Pagano
Christopher A.Chrzan
Randall D.McKinnon
摘要：We describe a pre-clinical spinal cord motor neuron injury model that is minimal invasive, reproducible, focal and easily applied to small rodents. Retrograde axonal transport of a pro-apoptotic phosphatidylinosotol 3'-kinase inhibitor, wortmannin, via the sciatic nerve results in loss of ipsilateral lumbar motor neurons proportional to the level of drug administered. Motor neuron loss was detected by choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) immunostaining and with a transgenic thy1-eGFP marker. The short half-life of wortmannin generates minimal wound spread, and wortmannin does not affect axon transport, as determined by co-injection of a pseudorabies virus tracer. Using quantitative transcript analysis, we found that ChAT transcripts significantly decreased at 14 days post-delivery of 1 μg wortmannin, relative to sham controls, and remained low after 90 days. Smaller effects were observed with 200 ng and 100 ng wortmannin. Wortmannin also generated a transient and significant increase in astrocyte Gfap transcripts after 14 days with a return to control levels at 90 days. Treated mice had hind limb spasticity and a forced motor function defect that was quantified using a water exit test. Controls rapidly exit a shallow water tray, and wortmannin treated animals were up to 12-fold slower, a phenotype that persisted for at least 3 months. Thus the focal delivery of wortmannin to motor neurons generates a reproducible and scalable injury that can facilitate quantitative studies on neural regeneration and repair. The efficacy of sciatic nerve suicide transport can also explain neurotoxin-mediated selective loss of motor neurons in diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. All procedures were performed at Rutgers under established Institutional Animal Care and Use protocols (eIACUC_TR201800022, approved on March 20, 2018).
机标关键词：
分类号：R453(治疗学)R364(病理学)R741(神经病学)
资助基金：Supported by grants to Dr McKinnon(PI)from the New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Research(05-3047;11-015)
论文发表日期：2021-07-28
在线出版日期：2025-08-15（本平台首次上网日期，不代表文献的发表时间）
页数：7( 1281-1287 )
英文信息