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Xia X, Shi C, Tsien C, Sun CB, Xie L, Luo Z, Bian M, Russano K, Thakur HS, Benowitz LI, Goldberg JL, Kapiloff MS. Ca 2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II Enhances Retinal Ganglion Cell Survival But Suppresses Axon Regeneration after Optic Nerve Injury. eNeuro 2024; 11:ENEURO.0478-23.2024. [PMID: 38548335 PMCID: PMC10978821 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0478-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Revised: 03/01/2024] [Accepted: 03/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuroprotection after injury or in neurodegenerative disease remains a major goal for basic and translational neuroscience. Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the projection neurons of the eye, degenerate in optic neuropathies after axon injury, and there are no clinical therapies to prevent their loss or restore their connectivity to targets in the brain. Here we demonstrate a profound neuroprotective effect of the exogenous expression of various Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) isoforms in mice. A dramatic increase in RGC survival following the optic nerve trauma was elicited by the expression of constitutively active variants of multiple CaMKII isoforms in RGCs using adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors across a 100-fold range of AAV dosing in vivo. Despite this neuroprotection, however, short-distance RGC axon sprouting was suppressed by CaMKII, and long-distance axon regeneration elicited by several pro-axon growth treatments was likewise inhibited even as CaMKII further enhanced RGC survival. Notably, in a dose-escalation study, AAV-expressed CaMKII was more potent for axon growth suppression than the promotion of survival. That diffuse overexpression of constitutively active CaMKII strongly promotes RGC survival after axon injury may be clinically valuable for neuroprotection per se. However, the associated strong suppression of the optic nerve axon regeneration demonstrates the need for understanding the intracellular domain- and target-specific CaMKII activities to the development of CaMKII signaling pathway-directed strategies for the treatment of optic neuropathies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Xia
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Caleb Shi
- Department of Neurosurgery, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Department of Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Christina Tsien
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Catalina B Sun
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Lili Xie
- Department of Neurosurgery, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Department of Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Ziming Luo
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Minjuan Bian
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Kristina Russano
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Hrishikesh Singh Thakur
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Larry I Benowitz
- Department of Neurosurgery, F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
- Department of Neurosurgery and Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Jeffrey L Goldberg
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
| | - Michael S Kapiloff
- Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California 94034
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