scholarly journals Humanin Rescues Cultured Rat Cortical Neurons from NMDA-Induced Toxicity Not by NMDA Receptor

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ai-Ling Cui ◽  
Jian-Zhong Li ◽  
Zhi-Bo Feng ◽  
Guo-Lin Ma ◽  
Liang Gong ◽  
...  

Excitatory neurotoxicity has been implicated in many pathological situations and there is no effective treatment available. Humanin is a 24-aa peptide cloned from the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In the present study, excitatory toxicity was induced by N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) in primarily cultured rat cortical neurons. MTT assessment, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release, and calcein staining were employed to evaluate the protective activity of humanin on NMDA induced toxicity. The results suggested that NMDA (100 μmol/L, 2.5 hr) triggered neuronal morphological changes, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release (166% of the control), reduction of cell viability (about 50% of the control), and the decrease of living cell density (about 50% of the control). When pretreated with humanin, the toxicity was suppressed. The living cells’ density of humanin treated group was similar to that of control. The cell viability was attenuated dose-dependently (IC50= 0.132 nmol/L). The LDH release was also neutralized in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the intracellular Ca2+overloading triggered by NMDA reverted quickly and humanin could not inhibit it. These findings indicate that humanin can rescue cortical neurons from NMDA-induced toxicity in rat but not through interfering with NMDA receptor directly.

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 263310552110202
Author(s):  
Sean X Naughton ◽  
Wayne D Beck ◽  
Zhe Wei ◽  
Guangyu Wu ◽  
Peter W Baas ◽  
...  

Among the various chemicals that are commonly used as pesticides, organophosphates (OPs), and to a lesser extent, carbamates, are most frequently associated with adverse long-term neurological consequences. OPs and the carbamate, pyridostigmine, used as a prophylactic drug against potential nerve agent attacks, have also been implicated in Gulf War Illness (GWI), which is often characterized by chronic neurological symptoms. While most OP- and carbamate-based pesticides, and pyridostigmine are relatively potent acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), this toxicological mechanism is inadequate to explain their long-term health effects, especially when no signs of acute cholinergic toxicity are exhibited. Our previous work suggests that a potential mechanism of the long-term neurological deficits associated with OPs is impairment of axonal transport (AXT); however, we had not previously evaluated carbamates for this effect. Here we thus evaluated the carbamate, physostigmine (PHY), a highly potent AChEI, on AXT using an in vitro neuronal live imaging assay that we have previously found to be very sensitive to OP-related deficits in AXT. We first evaluated the OP, diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) (concentration range 0.001-10.0 µM) as a reference compound that we found previously to impair AXT and subsequently evaluated PHY (concentration range 0.01-100 nM). As expected, DFP impaired AXT in a concentration-dependent manner, replicating our previously published results. In contrast, none of the concentrations of PHY (including concentrations well above the threshold for impairing AChE) impaired AXT. These data suggest that the long-term neurological deficits associated with some carbamates are not likely due to acute impairments of AXT.


2000 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 2610-2615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingbo Tang ◽  
Ronald M. Lynch ◽  
Frank Porreca ◽  
Josephine Lai

The opioid peptide dynorphin A is known to elicit a number of pathological effects that may result from neuronal excitotoxicity. An up-regulation of this peptide has also been causally related to the dysesthesia associated with inflammation and nerve injury. These effects of dynorphin A are not mediated through opioid receptor activation but can be effectively blocked by pretreatment with N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, thus implicating the excitatory amino acid system as a mediator of the actions of dynorphin A and/or its fragments. A direct interaction between dynorphin A and the NMDA receptors has been well established; however the physiological relevance of this interaction remains equivocal. This study examined whether dynorphin A elicits a neuronal excitatory effect that may underlie its activation of the NMDA receptors. Calcium imaging of individual cultured cortical neurons showed that the nonopioid peptide dynorphin A(2-17) induced a time- and dose-dependent increase in intracellular calcium. This excitatory effect of dynorphin A(2-17) was insensitive to (+)-5-methyl-10,11-dihydro-5 H-dibenzo[ a,d]-cyclohepten-5,10-imine (MK-801) pretreatment in NMDA-responsive cells. Thus dynorphin A stimulates neuronal cells via a nonopioid, non-NMDA mechanism. This excitatory action of dynorphin A could modulate NMDA receptor activity in vivo by enhancing excitatory neurotransmitter release or by potentiating NMDA receptor function in a calcium-dependent manner. Further characterization of this novel site of action of dynorphin A may provide new insight into the underlying mechanisms of dynorphin excitotoxicity and its pathological role in neuropathy.


1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Blanpied ◽  
Faye A. Boeckman ◽  
Elias Aizenman ◽  
Jon W. Johnson

Blanpied, Thomas A., Faye Boeckman, Elias Aizenman, and Jon W. Johnson. Trapping channel block of NMDA-activated responses by amantadine and memantine. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 309–323, 1997. We investigated the mechanisms by which the antiparkinsonian and neuroprotective agents amantadine and memantine inhibit responses to N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA). Whole cell recordings were performed using cultured rat cortical neurons or Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells expressing NMDA receptors. Both amantadine and memantine blocked NMDA-activated channels by binding to a site at which they could be trapped after channel closure and agonist unbinding. For neuronal receptors, the IC50s of amantadine and memantine at −67 mV were 39 and 1.4 μM, respectively. When memantine and agonists were washed off after steady-state block, one-sixth of the blocked channels released rather than trapped the blocker; memantine exhibited “partial trapping.” Thus memantine appears to have a lesser tendency to be trapped than do phencyclidine or (5R,10S)-(+)-5m e t h y l - 1 0 , 1 1 - d i h y d r o - 5 H - d i b e n z o [ 1 , d ] c y c l i h e p t e n - 5 , 1 0 - i m i n e(MK-801). We next investigated mechanisms that might underlie partial trapping. Memantine blocked and could be trapped by recombinant NMDA receptors composed of NR1 and either NR2A or NR2B subunits. In these receptors, as in the native receptors, the drug was released from one-sixth of blocked channels rather than being trapped in all of them. The partial trapping we observed therefore was not due to variability in the action of memantine on a heterogeneous population of NMDA receptors in cultured cortical neurons. Amantadine and memantine each noncompetitively inhibited NMDA-activated responses by binding at a second site with roughly 100-fold lower affinity, but this form of inhibition had little effect on the extent to which memantine was trapped. A simple kinetic model of blocker action was used to demonstrate that partial trapping can result if the presence of memantine in the channel affects the gating transitions or agonist affinity of the NMDA receptor. Partial trapping guarantees that during synaptic communication in the presence of blocker, some channels will release the blocker between synaptic responses. The extent to which amantadine and memantine become trapped after channel block thus may influence their therapeutic effects and their modulation of NMDA-receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic potentials.


1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 396-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Morley ◽  
Daniel L. Small ◽  
Christine L. Murray ◽  
Geoffrey A. Mealing ◽  
Michael O. Poulter ◽  
...  

Excitatory amino acids can modify the tone of cerebral vessels and permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) by acting directly on endothelial cells of cerebral vessels or indirectly by activating receptors expressed on other brain cells. In this study we examined whether rat or human cerebromicrovascular endothelial cells (CEC) express ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors. Glutamate and the glutamate receptor agonists N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA), α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA), and kainate failed to increase [Ca2+]i in either rat or human microvascular and capillary CEC but elicited robust responses in primary rat cortical neurons, as measured by fura-2 fluorescence. The absence of NMDA and AMPA receptors in rat and human CEC was further confirmed by the lack of immunocytochemical staining of cells by antibodies specific for the AMPA receptor subunits GluR1, GluR2/3, and GluR4 and the NMDA receptor subunits NR1, NR2A, and NR2B. We failed to detect mRNA expression of the AMPA receptor subunits GluR1 to GluR4 or the NMDA receptor subunits NR11XX, NR10XX, and NR2A to NR2C in both freshly isolated rat and human microvessels and cultured CEC using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Cultured rat CEC expressed mRNA for KA1 or KA2 and GluR5 subunits. Primary rat cortical neurons were found to express GluR1 to GluR3 and NR1, NR2A, and NR2B by both immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR and KA1, KA2, GluR5, GluR6, and GluR7 by RT-PCR. Moreover, the metabotropic glutamate receptor agonist 1-amino-cyclopentyl-1 S, 3 R-dicorboxylate (1 S,3 R-trans-ACPD), while eliciting both inositol trisphosphate and [Ca2+]i increases and inhibiting forskolin-stimulated cyclic AMP in cortical neurons, was unable to induce either of these responses in rat or human CEC. These results strongly suggest that both rat and human CEC do not express functional glutamate receptors. Therefore, excitatory amino acid-induced changes in the cerebral microvascular tone and BBB permeability must be affected indirectly, most likely by mediators released from the adjacent glutamate-responsive cells.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Ping Hsiao ◽  
Chun-Shu Yu ◽  
Chien-Chih Yu ◽  
Jai-Sing Yang ◽  
Jo-Hua Chiang ◽  
...  

Bufalin was obtained from the skin and parotid venom glands of toad and has been shown to induce cytotoxic effects in various types of cancer cell lines, but there is no report to show that whether bufalin affects human skin cancer cells. The aim of this investigation was to study the effects of bufalin on human malignant melanoma A375.S2 cells and to elucidate possible mechanisms involved in induction of apoptosis. A375.S2 cells were treated with different concentrations of bufalin for a specific time period and investigated for effects on apoptotic analyses. Our results indicated that cells after exposure to bufalin significantly decreased cell viability, and induced cell morphological changes and chromatin condensation in a concentration-dependent manner. Flow cytometric assays indicated that bufalin promoted ROS productions, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), intracellular Ca2+release, and nitric oxide (NO) formations in A375.S2 cells. Additionally, the apoptotic induction of bufalin on A375.S2 cells resulted from mitochondrial dysfunction-related responses (disruption of theΔΨmand releases of cytochromec, AIF, and Endo G), and activations of caspase-3, caspase-8 and caspase-9 expressions. Based on those observations, we suggest that bufalin-triggered apoptosis in A375.S2 cells is correlated with extrinsic- and mitochondria-mediated multiple signal pathways.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 844-851
Author(s):  
Wei Tu ◽  
Weifeng Li ◽  
Xingen Zhu ◽  
Linlin Xu

Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) has been widely used as a plasticizer in industry and can affect memory; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In the present study, mouse HT22 cells, an immortalized hippocampal neuronal cell line, was utilized as an in vitro model. We showed that DEHP dramatically inhibited cell viability and increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release from the cells in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that DEHP could cause cytotoxicity of mouse HT22 cells. The protein levels of cleaved Caspase-8, cleaved Caspase-3, and Bax markedly increased in the DEHP-treated cells, whereas there was a significant decrease in the Bcl-2 protein level, implying that DEHP could induce apoptosis of mouse HT22 cells. DEHP exposure significantly increased the content of malondialdehyde, whereas it markedly decreased the level of glutathione and the activities of glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, suggesting that DEHP induced oxidative stress of the cells. Compared with the DEHP-treated group, the inhibition of cell viability and the release of LDH were rescued in the N-acetyl-l-cysteine plus DEHP group. Furthermore, inhibition of oxidative stress could rescue the induction of apoptosis by DEHP. Collectively, our results indicated that DEHP could induce apoptosis of mouse HT22 cells via oxidative stress.


1992 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Y Sanchez ◽  
A L Blatz

Tetraethylammonium ion (TEA) and its longer chain derivatives have been used extensively to block currents through K-selective ion channels. Substantial information has been gained about the structure and gating mechanisms of K and other cation channels from the analysis of the blocking interactions of TEA and other quaternary ammonium ions. We now present an analysis of blocking interactions between single Cl-selective ion channels from acutely dissociated rat cortical neurons and externally applied TEA. TEA applied to the extracellular membrane surface (TEAo) blocked Cl channels in a voltage-dependent manner, with hyperpolarizing potentials favoring block. The voltage dependence of block could be adequately fit assuming that TEA enters the channel pore and binds to a site located approximately 28% of the way through the membrane electrical field. The dose-response relationship between fractional current and [TEA]o at a fixed holding potential of -40 mV was well fit to a simple model with two blocking sites with dissociation constants (Kd) of approximately 2 and 70 mM. The dose-response relationship could also be fit by a mechanism where TEA only partially blocks the channels. At the bandwidth used in these experiments (1-2 kHz), both the mean open duration (composed of the open and blocked durations) and burst duration (composed of open, blocked, and short lifetime shut durations) increased with increased [TEA]o. This is expected if TEAo can bind and unbind only when the channel is in the open kinetic state. These results suggest that the structure of the permeability pathway of these anion-selective channels may be very similar to that of other channels that are blocked by TEA. Additionally, these results caution that a blocking effect by TEA cannot, by itself, be used as sufficient evidence for implicating the participation of K channels in a particular process.


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