Lactate transporters in the rat barrel cortex sustain whisker-dependent BOLD fMRI signal and behavioral performance.

Lactate is an efficient neuronal energy source, even in presence of glucose. However, the importance of lactate shuttling between astrocytes and neurons for brain activation and function remains to be established. For this purpose, metabolic and hemodynamic responses to sensory stimulation have been measured by functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI after down-regulation of either neuronal MCT2 or astroglial MCT4 in the rat barrel cortex. Results show that the lactate rise in the barrel cortex upon whisker stimulation is abolished when either transporter is down-regulated. Under the same paradigm, the BOLD response is prevented in all MCT2 down-regulated rats, while about half of the MCT4 down-regulated rats exhibited a loss of the BOLD response. Interestingly, MCT4 down-regulated animals showing no BOLD response were rescued by peripheral lactate infusion, while this treatment had no effect on MCT2 down-regulated rats. When animals were tested in a novel object recognition task, MCT2 down-regulated animals were impaired in the textured but not in the visual version of the task. For MCT4 down-regulated animals, while all animal succeeded in the visual task, half of them exhibited a deficit in the textured task, a similar segregation into two groups as observed for BOLD experiments. Our data demonstrate that lactate shuttling between astrocytes and neurons is essential to give rise to both neurometabolic and neurovascular couplings, which form the basis for the detection of brain activation by functional brain imaging techniques. Moreover, our results establish that this metabolic cooperation is required to sustain behavioral performance based on cortical activation.

Glucose metabolism links astroglial mitochondria to cannabinoid effects.

Astrocytes take up glucose from the bloodstream to provide energy to the brain, thereby allowing neuronal activity and behavioural responses1-5. By contrast, astrocytes are under neuronal control through specific neurotransmitter receptors5-7. However, whether the activation of astroglial receptors can directly regulate cellular glucose metabolism to eventually modulate behavioural responses is unclear. Here we show that activation of mouse astroglial type-1 cannabinoid receptors associated with mitochondrial membranes (mtCB1) hampers the metabolism of glucose and the production of lactate in the brain, resulting in altered neuronal functions and, in turn, impaired behavioural responses in social interaction assays. Specifically, activation of astroglial mtCB1 receptors reduces the phosphorylation of the mitochondrial complex I subunit NDUFS4, which decreases the stability and activity of complex I. This leads to a reduction in the generation of reactive oxygen species by astrocytes and affects the glycolytic production of lactate through the hypoxia-inducible factor 1 pathway, eventually resulting in neuronal redox stress and impairment of behavioural responses in social interaction assays. Genetic and pharmacological correction of each of these effects abolishes the effect of cannabinoid treatment on the observed behaviour. These findings suggest that mtCB1 receptor signalling can directly regulate astroglial glucose metabolism to fine-tune neuronal activity and behaviour in mice.

Development of Efficient AAV2/DJ-Based Viral Vectors to Selectively Downregulate the Expression of Neuronal or Astrocytic Target Proteins in the Rat Central Nervous System.

Viral vectors have become very popular to overexpress or downregulate proteins of interest in different cell types. They conveniently allow the precise targeting of well-defined tissue areas, which is particularly useful in complex organs like the brain. In theory, each vector should have its own cell specificity that can be obtained by using different strategies (e.g., using a cell-specific promoter). For the moment, there is few vectors that have been developed to alternatively target, using the same capsid, neurons and astrocytes in the central nervous system. There is even fewer examples of adeno-associated viral vectors able to efficiently transduce cells both in vitro and in vivo. The development of viral vectors allowing the cell-specific downregulation of a protein in cultured cells of the central nervous system as well as in vivo within a large brain area would be highly desirable to address several important questions in neurobiology. Here we report that the use of the AAV2/DJ viral vector associated to an hybrid CMV/chicken ß-actin promoter (CBA) or to a modified form of the glial fibrillary acidic protein promoter (G1B3) allows a specific transduction of neurons or astrocytes in more than half of the barrel field within the rat somatosensory cortex. Moreover, the use of the miR30E-shRNA technology led to an efficient downregulation of two proteins of interest related to metabolism both in vitro and in vivo. Our results demonstrate that it is possible to downregulate the expression of different protein isoforms in a cell-specific manner using a common serotype. It is proposed that such an approach could be extended to other cell types and used to target several proteins of interest within the same brain area.

Astrocytes are key but indirect contributors to the development of the symptomatology and pathophysiology of Huntington's disease.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in which an early and selective vulnerability of striatal Spiny Projection Neurons is observed. However, several studies have highlighted the implication of glial cells, and in particular astrocytes, in the pathophysiological mechanisms of this disease. A better understanding of the respective contributions of neurons and astrocytes in HD is needed and would be important for the development of new therapeutic approaches. Today, no comparable in vivo models expressing the mutant HTT selectively in astrocytes or in neurons are available. In this study, we developed comparable cell-type specific mouse models expressing a fragment of Huntingtin specifically in neurons, astrocytes, or in both cell populations of the adult mouse basal ganglia circuit. This approach allowed us to characterize behavioral alterations occurring as soon as 4 weeks postinjection. Interestingly, less severe but significant behavioral alterations were also observed in the two cell-type specific models. We further showed that astrocytes are less affected by mHTT compared to neurons, in particular concerning mHTT aggregation. Additionally, a more indirect contribution of astrocytes compared to neurons was observed in several pathophysiological mechanisms such as astrogliosis and neuronal dysfunction. Finally, we showed that direct and indirect transcriptional alterations within the glial glutamatergic clearing system are caused by astrocytic and neuronal expression of mHTT, respectively. We anticipate that our study will help to better understand the contributions of astrocytes to HD and guide future therapeutic efforts. GLIA 2016;64:1841-1856.