Stroke leads to brain damage with subsequent slow and incomplete recovery of lost brain functions. Enriched housing of stroke-injured rats provides multi-modal sensorimotor stimulation, which improves recovery, although the specific mechanisms involved have not been identified. In rats housed in an enriched environment for two weeks after permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion, we found increased sigma-1 receptor expression in peri-infarct areas. Treatment of rats subjected to permanent or transient middle cerebral artery occlusion with 1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenethyl)-4-(3-phenylpropyl)piperazine dihydrochloride, an agonist of the sigma-1 receptor, starting two days after injury, enhanced the recovery of lost sensorimotor function without decreasing infarct size. The sigma-1 receptor was found in the galactocerebroside enriched membrane microdomains of reactive astrocytes and in neurons. Sigma-1 receptor activation increased the levels of the synaptic protein neurabin and neurexin in membrane rafts in the peri-infarct area, while sigma-1 receptor silencing prevented sigma-1 receptor-mediated neurite outgrowth in primary cortical neuronal cultures. In astrocytic cultures, oxygen and glucose deprivation induced sigma-1 receptor expression and actin dependent membrane raft formation, the latter blocked by sigma-1 receptor small interfering RNA silencing and pharmacological inhibition. We conclude that sigma-1 receptor activation stimulates recovery after stroke by enhancing cellular transport of biomolecules required for brain repair, thereby stimulating brain plasticity. Pharmacological targeting of the sigma-1 receptor provides new opportunities for stroke treatment beyond the therapeutic window of neuroprotection.

The protease-activated thrombin receptor-1 (PAR-1) can be activated by both the tethered ligand exposed by thrombin cleavage and a synthetic peptide having the tethered ligand sequence (thrombin receptor agonist peptide or TRAP). We conducted a mutational analysis of extracellular residues of the receptor potentially involved in interaction with both the tethered ligand and the soluble peptide agonist. Agonist-stimulated calcium efflux in X. laevis oocytes or inositol phosphate accumulation in COS-7 cells was used to assess receptor activation. We have also examined the binding of a radiolabeled TRAP for the wild-type and mutant PAR-1 receptors. Our results indicated that most of the mutations strongly affected TRAP-induced responses without significantly altering thrombin-induced responses or TRAP binding. Several point mutations and deletion of extracellular domains (DeltaEC3, DeltaNH3) drastically altered the ability of mutant receptors to respond to TRAP, but not to thrombin, and did not affect the affinity for the radiolabeled TRAP by these mutant receptors. Only mutations that disrupted the putative disulfide bond or substitution of multiple acidic residues in the second extracellular loop by alanine had a significant effect on both ligand binding and thrombin activation. These results suggest that although both agonists can activate PAR-1, there are profound differences in the ability of thrombin and TRAP to activate PAR-1. In addition, we have found PAR-1 mutants with the ability to dissociate receptor-specific binding from functional activity.

Amyloid beta-derived diffusible ligands (ADDLs) comprise the neurotoxic subset of soluble Abeta(1-42) oligomers, now widely considered to be the molecular cause of memory malfunction and neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We have developed a screening cascade which identifies small molecule modulators of ADDL-mediated neurotoxicity. The primary screen involves a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based assay which selects inhibitors of Abeta1-42 oligomer assembly. The identified hits were further characterized by assessing their ability to inhibit the assembly and binding of ADDLs to cultures of primary hippocampal neurons. This approach has led to the identification of a number of small molecules which inhibit ADDL assembly and their subsequent binding to neurons. Here we describe our small molecule discovery efforts to identify ADDL assembly blocker and ADDL binding inhibitors, and to transform validated hits into pre-clinical lead compounds.

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