Cannabinoid CB2 receptors in the mouse brain: relevance for Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Because of their low levels of expression and the inadequacy of current research tools, CB2 cannabinoid receptors (CB2R) have been difficult to study, particularly in the brain. This receptor is especially relevant in the context of neuroinflammation, so novel tools are needed to unveil its pathophysiological role(s). METHODS: We have generated a transgenic mouse model in which the expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) is under the control of the cnr2 gene promoter through the insertion of an Internal Ribosomal Entry Site followed by the EGFP coding region immediately 3' of the cnr2 gene and crossed these mice with mice expressing five familial Alzheimer's disease (AD) mutations (5xFAD). RESULTS: Expression of EGFP in control mice was below the level of detection in all regions of the central nervous system (CNS) that we examined. CB2R-dependent-EGFP expression was detected in the CNS of 3-month-old AD mice in areas of intense inflammation and amyloid deposition; expression was coincident with the appearance of plaques in the cortex, hippocampus, brain stem, and thalamus. The expression of EGFP increased as a function of plaque formation and subsequent microgliosis and was restricted to microglial cells located in close proximity to neuritic plaques. AD mice with CB2R deletion exhibited decreased neuritic plaques with no changes in IL1ß expression. CONCLUSIONS: Using a novel reporter mouse line, we found no evidence for CB2R expression in the healthy CNS but clear up-regulation in the context of amyloid-triggered neuroinflammation. Data from CB2R null mice indicate that they play a complex role in the response to plaque formation.

Integrated Stress Response as a Therapeutic Target for CNS Injuries.

Central nervous system (CNS) injuries, caused by cerebrovascular pathologies or mechanical contusions (e.g., traumatic brain injury, TBI) comprise a diverse group of disorders that share the activation of the integrated stress response (ISR). This pathway is an innate protective mechanism, with encouraging potential as therapeutic target for CNS injury repair. In this review, we will focus on the progress in understanding the role of the ISR and we will discuss the effects of various small molecules that target the ISR on different animal models of CNS injury.

TUDCA: An Agonist of the Bile Acid Receptor GPBAR1/TGR5 With Anti-Inflammatory Effects in Microglial Cells.

Bile acids are steroid acids found in the bile of mammals. The bile acid conjugate tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) is neuroprotective in different animal models of stroke and neurological diseases. We have previously shown that TUDCA has anti-inflammatory effects on glial cell cultures and in a mouse model of acute neuroinflammation. We show now that microglial cells (central nervous system resident macrophages) express the G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1/Takeda G protein-coupled receptor 5 (GPBAR1/TGR5) in vivo and in vitro. TUDCA binding to GPBAR1/TGR5 caused an increase in intracellular cAMP levels in microglia that induced anti-inflammatory markers, while reducing pro-inflammatory ones. This anti-inflammatory effect of TUDCA was inhibited by small interference RNA for GPBAR1/TGR5 receptor, as well as by treatment with a protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor. In the mouse model of acute neuroinflammation, treating the animals with TUDCA was clearly anti-inflammatory. TUDCA biased the microglial phenotype in vivo and in vitro toward the anti-inflammatory. The bile acid receptor GPBAR1/TGR5 could be a new therapeutic target for pathologies coursing with neuroinflammation and microglia activation, such as traumatic brain injuries, stroke, or neurodegenerative diseases. TUDCA and other GPBAR1/TGR5 agonists need to be further investigated, to determine their potential in attenuating the neuropathologies associated with microglia activation. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 2231-2245, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neuroprotection and Blood-Brain Barrier Restoration by Salubrinal After a Cortical Stab Injury.

Following a central nervous system (CNS) injury, restoration of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity is essential for recovering homeostasis. When this process is delayed or impeded, blood substances and cells enter the CNS parenchyma, initiating an additional inflammatory process that extends the initial injury and causes so-called secondary neuronal loss. Astrocytes and profibrotic mesenchymal cells react to the injury and migrate to the lesion site, creating a new glia limitans that restores the BBB. This process is beneficial for the resolution of the inflammation, neuronal survival, and the initiation of the healing process. Salubrinal is a small molecule with neuroprotective properties in different animal models of stroke and trauma to the CNS. Here, we show that salubrinal increased neuronal survival in the neighbourhood of a cerebral cortex stab injury. Moreover, salubrinal reduced cortical blood leakage into the parenchyma of injured animals compared with injured controls. Adjacent to the site of injury, salubrinal induced immunoreactivity for platelet-derived growth factor subunit B (PDGF-B), a specific mitogenic factor for mesenchymal cells. This effect might be responsible for the increased immunoreactivity for fibronectin and the decreased activation of microglia and macrophages in injured mice treated with salubrinal, compared with injured controls. The immunoreactivity for PDGF-B colocalized with neuronal nuclei (NeuN), suggesting that cortical neurons in the proximity of the injury were the main source of PDGF-B. Our results suggest that after an injury, neurons play an important role in both, the healing process and the restoration of the BBB integrity. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 1501-1510, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

TGFß Contributes to the Anti-inflammatory Effects of Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid on an Animal Model of Acute Neuroinflammation.

The bile acid conjugate tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) is a neuroprotective agent in various animal models of neuropathologies. We have previously shown the anti-inflammatory properties of TUDCA in an animal model of acute neuroinflammation. Here, we present a new anti-inflammatory mechanism of TUDCA through the regulation of transforming growth factor ß (TGFß) pathway. The bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was injected intravenously (iv) on TGFß reporter mice (Smad-binding element (SBE)/Tk-Luc) to study in their brains the real-time activation profile of the TGFß pathway in a non-invasive way. The activation of the TGFß pathway in the brain of SBE/Tk-Luc mice increased 24 h after LPS injection, compared to control animals. This activation peak increased further in mice treated with both LPS and TUDCA than in mice treated with LPS only. The enhanced TGFß activation in mice treated with LPS and TUDCA correlated with both an increase in TGFß3 transcript in mouse brain and an increase in TGFß3 immunoreactivity in microglia/macrophages, endothelial cells, and neurons. Inhibition of the TGFß receptor with SB431542 drug reverted the effect of TUDCA on microglia/macrophages activation and on TGFß3 immunoreactivity. Under inflammatory conditions, treatment with TUDCA enhanced further the activation of TGFß pathway in mouse brain and increased the expression of TGFß3. Therefore, the induction of TGFß3 by TUDCA might act as a positive feedback, increasing the initial activation of the TGFß pathway by the inflammatory stimulus. Our findings provide proof-of-concept that TGFß contributes to the anti-inflammatory effect of TUDCA under neuroinflammatory conditions.

New oleyl glycoside as anti-cancer agent that targets on neutral sphingomyelinase.

We designed and synthesized two anomeric oleyl glucosaminides as anti-cancer agents where the presence of a trifluoroacetyl group close to the anomeric center makes them resistant to hydrolysis by hexosaminidases. The oleyl glycosides share key structural features with synthetic and natural oleyl derivatives that have been reported to exhibit anti-cancer properties. While both glycosides showed antiproliferative activity on cancer cell lines, only the α-anomer caused endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and cell death on C6 glioma cells. Analysis of sphingolipids and glycosphingolipds in cells treated with the glycosides showed that the α-anomer caused a drastic accumulation of ceramide and glucosylceramide and reduction of lactosylceramide and GM3 ganglioside at concentrations above a threshold of 20 µM. In order to understand how ceramide levels increase in response to α-glycoside treatment, further investigations were done using specific inhibitors of sphingolipid metabolic pathways. The pretreatment with 3-O-methylsphingomyelin (a neutral sphingomyelinase inhibitor) restored sphingomyelin levels together with the lactosylceramide and GM3 ganglioside levels and prevented the ER stress and cell death caused by the α-glycoside. The results indicated that the activation of neutral sphingomyelinase is the main cause of the alterations in sphingolipids that eventually lead to cell death. The new oleyl glycoside targets a key enzyme in sphingolipid metabolism with potential applications in cancer therapy.

Salubrinal inhibits the expression of proteoglycans and favors neurite outgrowth from cortical neurons in vitro.

After CNS injury, astrocytes and mesenchymal cells attempt to restore the disrupted glia limitans by secreting proteoglycans and extracellular matrix proteins (ECMs), forming the so-called glial scar. Although the glial scar is important in sealing the lesion, it is also a physical and functional barrier that prevents axonal regeneration. The synthesis of secretory proteins in the RER is under the control of the initiation factor of translation eIF2α. Inhibiting the synthesis of secretory proteins by increasing the phosphorylation of eIF2α, might be a pharmacologically efficient way of reducing proteoglycans and other profibrotic proteins present in the glial scar. Salubrinal, a neuroprotective drug, decreased the expression and secretion of proteoglycans and other profibrotic proteins induced by EGF or TGFß, maintaining eIF2α phosphorylated. Besides, Salubrinal also reduced the transcription of proteoglycans and other profibrotic proteins, suggesting that it induced the degradation of non-translated mRNA. In a model in vitro of the glial scar, cortical neurons grown on cocultures of astrocytes and fibroblasts with TGFß treated with Salubrinal, showed increased neurite outgrowth compared to untreated cells. Our results suggest that Salubrinal may be considered of therapeutic value facilitating axonal regeneration, by reducing overproduction and secretion of proteoglycans and profibrotic protein inhibitors of axonal growth.

Tauroursodeoxycholic acid reduces glial cell activation in an animal model of acute neuroinflammation.

BACKGROUND: Bile acids are steroid acids found predominantly in the bile of mammals. The bile acid conjugate tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) is a neuroprotective agent in different animal models of stroke and neurological diseases. However, the anti-inflammatory properties of TUDCA in the central nervous system (CNS) remain unknown. METHODS: The acute neuroinflammation model of intracerebroventricular (icv) injection with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in C57BL/6 adult mice was used herein. Immunoreactivity against Iba-1, GFAP, and VCAM-1 was measured in coronal sections in the mice hippocampus. Primary cultures of microglial cells and astrocytes were obtained from neonatal Wistar rats. Glial cells were treated with proinflammatory stimuli to determine the effect of TUDCA on nitrite production and activation of inducible enzyme nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and NFκB luciferase reporters. We studied the effect of TUDCA on transcriptional induction of iNOS and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA as well as induction of protein expression and phosphorylation of different proteins from the NFκB pathway. RESULTS: TUDCA specifically reduces microglial reactivity in the hippocampus of mice treated by icv injection of LPS. TUDCA treatment reduced the production of nitrites by microglial cells and astrocytes induced by proinflammatory stimuli that led to transcriptional and translational diminution of the iNOS. This effect might be due to inhibition of the NFκB pathway, activated by proinflammatory stimuli. TUDCA decreased in vitro microglial migration induced by both IFN-γ and astrocytes treated with LPS plus IFN-γ. TUDCA inhibition of MCP-1 expression induced by proinflammatory stimuli could be in part responsible for this effect. VCAM-1 inmunoreactivity in the hippocampus of animals treated by icv LPS was reduced by TUDCA treatment, compared to animals treated with LPS alone. CONCLUSIONS: We show a triple anti-inflammatory effect of TUDCA on glial cells: i) reduced glial cell activation, ii) reduced microglial cell migratory capacity, and iii) reduced expression of chemoattractants (e.g., MCP-1) and vascular adhesion proteins (e.g., VCAM-1) required for microglial migration and blood monocyte invasion to the CNS inflammation site. Our results present a novel TUDCA anti-inflammatory mechanism, with therapeutic implications for inflammatory CNS diseases.

Synthesis of antimitotic thioglycosides: in vitro and in vivo evaluation of their anticancer activity.

The synthesis and biological activity of oleylN-acetyl-α- and ß-d-glucosaminides (1 and 2, respectively) and their thioglycosyl analogues (3 and 4, respectively) are reported. The compounds exhibited antimitotic activity on rat glioma (C6) and human lung carcinoma (A549) cell cultures in the micromolar range. Analysis of cell extracts using ultra performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that the synthetic glycosides produce alterations in glycosphingolipid metabolism, with variable effect on the level of glucosylceramide depending on the configuration of the antimitotic used. In vivo experiments in nude mice bearing an implanted C6 glioma showed that the α-thioglycoside 3 reduced tumor volume, while the O-glycosyl derivative was inactive, highlighting the importance of using enzyme resistant glycosides.