Investigation of the therapeutic potential of N-acetyl cysteine and the tools used to define nigrostriatal degeneration in vivo
DOI
10.1016/j.taap.2016.02.010
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
4-1-2016
Publication Title
Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology
Volume
296
First Page
19
Last Page
30
ISSN
0041008X
Keywords
Dopamine, FluoroGold, N-acetylcysteine, Neurodegeneration, Parkinson's disease, Retrograde, The reference trap
Abstract
The glutathione precursor N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) is currently being tested on Parkinson's patients for its neuroprotective properties. Our studies have shown that NAC can elicit protection in glutathione-independent manners in vitro. Thus, the goal of the present study was to establish an animal model of NAC-mediated protection in which to dissect the underlying mechanism. Mice were infused intrastriatally with the oxidative neurotoxicant 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA; 4 μg) and administered NAC intraperitoneally (100 mg/kg). NAC-treated animals exhibited higher levels of the dopaminergic terminal marker tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the striatum 10d after 6-OHDA. As TH expression is subject to stress-induced modulation, we infused the tracer FluoroGold into the striatum to retrogradely label nigrostriatal projection neurons. As expected, nigral FluoroGold staining and cell counts of FluoroGold+ profiles were both more sensitive measures of nigrostriatal degeneration than measurements relying on TH alone. However, NAC failed to protect dopaminergic neurons 3 weeks following 6-OHDA, an effect verified by four measures: striatal TH levels, nigral TH levels, nigral TH+ cell counts, and nigral FluoroGold levels. Some degree of mild toxicity of FluoroGold and NAC was evident, suggesting that caution must be exercised when relying on FluoroGold as a neuron-counting tool and when designing experiments with long-term delivery of NAC-such as clinical trials on patients with chronic disorders. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the tools used to define nigrostriatal degeneration are discussed.
Open Access
Green Accepted
Preprint
Repository Citation
Nouraei, N., Zarger, L., Weilnau, J., Han, J., Mason, D., & Leak, R. (2016). Investigation of the therapeutic potential of N-acetyl cysteine and the tools used to define nigrostriatal degeneration in vivo. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 296, 19-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.taap.2016.02.010
