Acute Hyperammonemia Induces NMDA-Mediated Hypophosphorylation of Intermediate Filaments Through PP1 and PP2B in Cerebral Cortex of Young Rats

Toxic Metabolites and Inborn Errors of Amino Acid Metabolism: What One Informs about the Other

In inborn errors of metabolism, such as amino acid breakdown disorders, loss of function mutations in metabolic enzymes within the catabolism pathway lead to an accumulation of the catabolic intermediate that is the substrate of the mutated enzyme. In patients of such disorders, dietarily restricting the amino acid(s) to prevent the formation of these catabolic intermediates has a therapeutic or even entirely preventative effect. This demonstrates that the pathology is due to a toxic accumulation of enzyme substrates rather than the loss of downstream products. Here, we provide an overview of amino acid metabolic disorders from the perspective of the ‘toxic metabolites’ themselves, including their mechanism of toxicity and whether they are involved in the pathology of other disease contexts as well. In the research literature, there is often evidence that such metabolites play a contributing role in multiple other nonhereditary (and more common) disease conditions, and these studies can provide important mechanistic insights into understanding the metabolite-induced pathology of the inborn disorder. Furthermore, therapeutic strategies developed for the inborn disorder may be applicable to these nonhereditary disease conditions, as they involve the same toxic metabolite. We provide an in-depth illustration of this cross-informing concept in two metabolic disorders, methylmalonic acidemia and hyperammonemia, where the pathological metabolites methylmalonic acid and ammonia are implicated in other disease contexts, such as aging, neurodegeneration, and cancer, and thus there are opportunities to apply mechanistic or therapeutic insights from one disease context towards the other. Additionally, we expand our scope to other metabolic disorders, such as homocystinuria and nonketotic hyperglycinemia, to propose how these concepts can be applied broadly across different inborn errors of metabolism and various nonhereditary disease conditions.

Disturbance of the Glutamate-Glutamine Cycle, Secondary to Hepatic Damage, Compromises Memory Function

Glutamate fulfils many vital functions both at a peripheral level and in the central nervous system (CNS). However, hyperammonemia and hepatic failure induce alterations in glutamatergic neurotransmission, which may be the main cause of hepatic encephalopathy (HE), an imbalance which may explain damage to both learning and memory. Cognitive and motor alterations in hyperammonemia may be caused by a deregulation of the glutamate-glutamine cycle, particularly in astrocytes, due to the blocking of the glutamate excitatory amino-acid transporters 1 and 2 (EAAT1, EAAT2). Excess extracellular glutamate triggers mechanisms involving astrocyte-mediated inflammation, including the release of Ca2+-dependent glutamate from astrocytes, the appearance of excitotoxicity, the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and cell damage. Glutamate re-uptake not only prevents excitotoxicity, but also acts as a vital component in synaptic plasticity and function. The present review outlines the evidence of the relationship between hepatic damage, such as that occurring in HE and hyperammonemia, and changes in glutamine synthetase function, which increase glutamate concentrations in the CNS. These conditions produce dysfunction in neuronal communication. The present review also includes data indicating that hyperammonemia is related to the release of a high level of pro-inflammatory factors, such as interleukin-6, by astrocytes. This neuroinflammatory condition alters the function of the membrane receptors, such as N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid) AMPA, and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), thus affecting learning and spatial memory. Data indicates that learning and spatial memory, as well as discriminatory or other information acquisition processes in the CNS, are damaged by the appearance of hyperammonemia and, moreover, are associated with a reduction in the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). Therefore, increased levels of pharmacologically controlled cGMP may be used as a therapeutic tool for improving learning and memory in patients with HE, hyperammonemia, cerebral oedema, or reduced intellectual capacity.

Ca2+, Astrocyte Activation and Calcineurin/NFAT Signaling in Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases

Mounting evidence supports a fundamental role for Ca²⁺ dysregulation in astrocyte activation. Though the activated astrocyte phenotype is complex, cell-type targeting approaches have revealed a number of detrimental roles of activated astrocytes involving neuroinflammation, release of synaptotoxic factors and loss of glutamate regulation. Work from our lab and others has suggested that the Ca²⁺/calmodulin dependent protein phosphatase, calcineurin (CN), provides a critical link between Ca²⁺ dysregulation and the activated astrocyte phenotype. A proteolyzed, hyperactivated form of CN appears at high levels in activated astrocytes in both human tissue and rodent tissue around regions of amyloid and vascular pathology. Similar upregulation of the CN-dependent transcription factor nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT4) also appears in activated astrocytes in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (ADs) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Major consequences of hyperactivated CN/NFAT4 signaling in astrocytes are neuroinflammation, synapse dysfunction and glutamate dysregulation/excitotoxicity, which will be covered in this review article.

Developmental neurotoxicity of the hippocampus following in utero exposure to methylmercury: impairment in cell signaling

In this study, we assessed some hippocampal signaling cascades and behavioral impairments in 30-day-old rat pups prenatally exposed to methylmercury (MeHg). Pregnant rats were exposed to 1.0 or 2.0 mg/kg MeHg by gavage in alternated days from gestational day 5 until parturition. We found increased anxiety-like and decreased exploration behavior evaluated by open field test and deficit of both short- and long-term memories by novel object recognition task, respectively, in MeHg-treated pups. Downregulated PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway and activated/hypophosphorylated (Ser9) GSK3β in MeHg-treated pups could be upstream of hyperphosphorylated Tau (Ser396) destabilizing microtubules and contributing to neural dysfunction in the hippocampus of these rats. Hyperphosphorylated/activated p38MAPK and downregulated phosphoErk1/2 support a role for mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade on MeHg neurotoxicity. Decreased receptor of advanced glycation end products (RAGE) immunocontent supports the assumption that downregulated RAGE/Erk1/2 pathway could be involved in hypophosphorylated lysine/serine/proline (KSP) repeats on neurofilament subunits and disturbed axonal transport. Downregulated myelin basic protein (MBP), the major myelin protein, is compatible with dysmyelination and neurofilament hypophosphorylation. Increased glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) levels suggest reactive astrocytes, and active apoptotic pathways BAD/BCL-2, BAX/BCL-XL, and caspase 3 suggest cell death. Taken together, our findings get light on important signaling mechanisms that could underlie the behavioral deficits in 30-day-old pups prenatally exposed to MeHg.

Cytoskeleton as a Target of Quinolinic Acid Neurotoxicity: Insight from Animal Models

Cytoskeletal proteins are increasingly recognized as having important roles as a target of the action of different neurotoxins. In the last years, several works of our group have shown that quinolinic acid (QUIN) was able to disrupt the homeostasis of the cytoskeleton of neural cells and this was associated with cell dysfunction and neurodegeneration. QUIN is an excitotoxic metabolite of tryptophan metabolism and its accumulation is associated with several neurodegenerative diseases. In the present review, we provide a comprehensive view of the actions of QUIN upstream of glutamate receptors, eliciting kinase/phosphatase signaling cascades that disrupt the homeostasis of the phosphorylation system associated with intermediate filament proteins of astrocytes and neurons. We emphasize the critical role of calcium in these actions and the evidence that misregulated cytoskeleton takes part of the cell response to the injury resulting in neurodegeneration in different brain regions, disrupted cell signaling in acute tissue slices, and disorganized cytoskeleton with altered cell morphology in primary cultures. We also discuss the interplay among misregulated cytoskeleton, oxidative stress, and cell-cell contact through gap junctions mediating the quinolinic acid injury in rat brain. The increasing amount of cross talks identified between cytoskeletal proteins and cellular signaling cascades reinforces the exciting possibility that cytoskeleton could be a new target in the neurotoxicity of QUIN and further studies will be necessary to develop strategies to protect the cytoskeleton and counteracts the cytotoxicity of this metabolite.