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Treatment of Parkinson disease (PD) with L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) dramatically relieves associated motor deficits, but L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias (LID) limit the therapeutic benefit over time. Previous investigations have noted changes in striatal medium spiny neurons, including abnormal activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK). Using two PD models, the traditional 6-hydroxydopamine toxic lesion and a genetic model with nigrostriatal dopaminergic deficits, we found that acute dopamine challenge induces ERK activation in medium spiny neurons in denervated striatum. After repeated L-DOPA treatment, however, ERK activation diminishes in medium spiny neurons and increases in striatal cholinergic interneurons. ERK activation leads to enhanced basal firing rate and stronger excitatory responses to dopamine in striatal cholinergic neurons. Pharmacological blockers of ERK activation inhibit L-DOPA-induced changes in ERK phosphorylation, neuronal excitability, and the behavioral manifestation of LID. In addition, a muscarinic receptor antagonist reduces LID. These data indicate that increased dopamine sensitivity of striatal cholinergic neurons contributes to the expression of LID, which suggests novel therapeutic targets for LID.antagonist D opaminergic drugs are effective treatments for the motor symptoms of Parkinson disease (PD), but long-term therapy is limited by disabling abnormal involuntary movements, referred to as L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias (LID) (1). Thus, understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying LID will help identify more effective treatments for PD, and may also help elucidate the role of dopamine (DA) signaling in motor control.Several biochemical markers of LID have been studied in striatum using animal models. FosB/δFosB expression show a long-term temporal correlation with LID development in DA denervation PD models (2). The increased FosB expression persists over days or weeks and may contribute to the development of LID, but does not correlate with the L-DOPA-induced episodes of dyskinesia that follow each dose. To mediate expression of LID directly, cell signals should grow stronger with repeated L-DOPA treatment and show temporal correlation with acute dopaminergic stimulation. Acute administration of L-DOPA or dopamine agonists activates ERK1/2 by phosphorylation in striatal neurons of DA-denervated animals (3-7). In animals with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions, coadministration of inhibitors of ERK1/2 phosphorylation during repeated L-DOPA treatments reduce LID development (4,8). Studies on these molecular changes have focused on the predominant cell type in the striatum, medium spiny neurons (MSN). In addition, although the unilateral 6-OHDA lesion has been the standard model for the PD phenotype, and particularly for LID, the abrupt nature of the lesion and extreme depletion of dopaminergic afferents has posed limitations in behavioral and biochemical studies.In this study, we used both a unilateral 6-OHDA lesion model and a g...

Neuronal intranuclear inclusions are found in the brains of patients with Huntington's disease and form from the polyglutamine-expanded N-terminal region of mutant huntingtin. To explore the properties of inclusions and their involvement in cell death, mouse clonal striatal cells were transiently transfected with truncated and full-length human wild-type and mutant huntingtin cDNAs. Both normal and mutant proteins localized in the cytoplasm, and infrequently, in dispersed and perinuclear vacuoles. Only mutant huntingtin formed nuclear and cytoplasmic inclusions, which increased with polyglutamine expansion and with time after transfection. Nuclear inclusions contained primarily cleaved N-terminal products, whereas cytoplasmic inclusions contained cleaved and larger intact proteins. Cells with wild-type or mutant protein had distinct apoptotic features (membrane blebbing, shrinkage, cellular fragmentation), but those with mutant huntingtin generated the most cell fragments (apoptotic bodies). The caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK significantly increased cell survival but did not diminish nuclear and cytoplasmic inclusions. In contrast, Z-DEVD-FMK significantly reduced nuclear and cytoplasmic inclusions but did not increase survival. A series of N-terminal products was formed from truncated normal and mutant proteins and from full-length mutant huntingtin but not from full-length wild-type huntingtin. One prominent N-terminal product was blocked by Z-VAD-FMK. In summary, the formation of inclusions in clonal striatal cells corresponds to that seen in the HD brain and is separable from events that regulate cell death. N-terminal cleavage may be linked to mutant huntingtin's role in cell death.

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L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) is one of the main limitations of long term L-DOPA use in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. We show that chronic L-DOPA treatment induces novel dyskinetic behaviors in aphakia mouse with selective nigrostriatal deficit mimicking PD. The stereotypical abnormal involuntary movements were induced by dopamine receptor agonists and attenuated by antidyskinetic agents. The development of LID was accompanied by preprodynorphin and preproenkephalin expression changes in the denervated dorsal striatum. Increased FosB-expression was also noted in the dorsal striatum. In addition, FosB expression was noted in the pedunculopontine nucleus and the zona incerta, structures previously not examined in the setting of LID. The aphakia mouse is a novel genetic model with behavioral and biochemical characteristics consistent with those of PD dyskinesia and provides a more consistent, convenient, and physiologic model than toxic lesion models to study the mechanism of LID and to test therapeutic approaches for LID.