Primary skin fibroblasts as a model of Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder. While most cases occur sporadic mutations in a growing number of genes including Parkin (PARK2) and PINK1 (PARK6) have been associated with the disease. Different animal models and cell models like patient skin fibroblasts and recombinant cell lines can be used as model systems for Parkinson's disease. Skin fibroblasts present a system with defined mutations and the cumulative cellular damage of the patients. PINK1 and Parkin genes show relevant expression levels in human fibroblasts and since both genes participate in stress response pathways, we believe fibroblasts advantageous in order to assess, e.g. the effect of stressors. Furthermore, since a bioenergetic deficit underlies early stage Parkinson's disease, while atrophy underlies later stages, the use of primary cells seems preferable over the use of tumor cell lines. The new option to use fibroblast-derived induced pluripotent stem cells redifferentiated into dopaminergic neurons is an additional benefit. However, the use of fibroblast has also some drawbacks. We have investigated PARK6 fibroblasts and they mirror closely the respiratory alterations, the expression profiles, the mitochondrial dynamics pathology and the vulnerability to proteasomal stress that has been documented in other model systems. Fibroblasts from patients with PARK2, PARK6, idiopathic Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 demonstrated a distinct and unique mRNA expression pattern of key genes in neurodegeneration. Thus, primary skin fibroblasts are a useful Parkinson's disease model, able to serve as a complement to animal mutants, transformed cell lines and patient tissues

Método para el diagnóstico serológico de la enfermedad de Parkinson

Número de publicación: 2 320 287 Número de solicitud: 200501201Método de diagnóstico serológico de la enfermedad de Parkinson basado en la determinación de actividad de aminopeptidasas séricas utilizando sustratos de aminopeptidasas como reactivos mediante la medida de la fluorescencia o absorbancia producida por los productos obtenidos por la acción hidrolítica de tales enzimas.Universidad de Granad

Propagation and bend losses in low-contrast polymers for single-mode optical waveguides

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have contributed to manipulation and routing of optical signals. PICs have been mainly based on silicon on insulator (SOI) technology, due to compatibility with conventional CMOS fabrication processes and also good performing in the near-infrared communication windows. Nevertheless, silicon is not convenient for other purposes that aim to exploit the visible spectrum

Propagation and bend losses in low-contrast polymers for single-mode optical waveguides

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have contributed to manipulation and routing of optical signals. PICs have been mainly based on silicon on insulator (SOI) technology, due to compatibility with conventional CMOS fabrication processes and also good performing in the near-infrared communication windows. Nevertheless, silicon is not convenient for other purposes that aim to exploit the visible spectrum

Progression of pathology in PINK1-deficient mouse brain from splicing via ubiquitination, ER stress, and mitophagy changes to neuroinflammation

Background: PINK1 deficiency causes the autosomal recessive PARK6 variant of Parkinson’s disease. PINK1 activates ubiquitin by phosphorylation and cooperates with the downstream ubiquitin ligase PARKIN, to exert quality control and control autophagic degradation of mitochondria and of misfolded proteins in all cell types. Methods: Global transcriptome profiling of mouse brain and neuron cultures were assessed in protein-protein interaction diagrams and by pathway enrichment algorithms. Validation by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and immunoblots was performed, including human neuroblastoma cells and patient primary skin fibroblasts. Results: In a first approach, we documented Pink1-deleted mice across the lifespan regarding brain mRNAs. The expression changes were always subtle, consistently affecting “intracellular membrane-bounded organelles”. Significant anomalies involved about 250 factors at age 6 weeks, 1300 at 6 months, and more than 3500 at age 18 months in the cerebellar tissue, including Srsf10, Ube3a, Mapk8, Creb3, and Nfkbia. Initially, mildly significant pathway enrichment for the spliceosome was apparent. Later, highly significant networks of ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis and endoplasmic reticulum protein processing occurred. Finally, an enrichment of neuroinflammation factors appeared, together with profiles of bacterial invasion and MAPK signaling changes—while mitophagy had minor significance. Immunohistochemistry showed pronounced cellular response of Iba1-positive microglia and GFAP-positive astrocytes; brain lipidomics observed increases of ceramides as neuroinflammatory signs at old age. In a second approach, we assessed PINK1 deficiency in the presence of a stressor. Marked dysregulations of microbial defense factors Ifit3 and Rsad2 were consistently observed upon five analyses: (1) Pink1 −/− primary neurons in the first weeks after brain dissociation, (2) aged Pink1 −/− midbrain with transgenic A53T-alpha-synuclein overexpression, (3) human neuroblastoma cells with PINK1-knockdown and murine Pink1 −/− embryonal fibroblasts undergoing acute starvation, (4) triggering mitophagy in these cells with trifluoromethoxy carbonylcyanide phenylhydrazone (FCCP), and (5) subjecting them to pathogenic RNA-analogue poly(I:C). The stress regulation of MAVS, RSAD2, DDX58, IFIT3, IFIT1, and LRRK2 was PINK1 dependent. Dysregulation of some innate immunity genes was also found in skin fibroblast cells from PARK6 patients. Conclusions: Thus, an individual biomarker with expression correlating to progression was not identified. Instead, more advanced disease stages involved additional pathways. Hence, our results identify PINK1 deficiency as an early modulator of innate immunity in neurons, which precedes late stages of neuroinflammation during alpha-synuclein spreading

Additional file 11: Fig. S4. of Progression of pathology in PINK1-deficient mouse brain from splicing via ubiquitination, ER stress, and mitophagy changes to neuroinflammation

Transcriptional response of innate immunity factors to 24 h treatment with uncoupling drug FCCP and subsequent mitophagy, in dependence on PINK1. Three independent experiments in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma (above) and murine embryonal fibroblast cells (below) documented the expression of key inflammatory factors in untreated versus drug-treated cells, comparing control with PINK1-deficiency. The bar graphs show mean and standard error of the mean, illustrating the significance with asterisks (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001). (TIFF 538 kb