Sonic hedgehog delivered by an adeno-associated virus protects dopaminergic neurones against 6-OHDA toxicity in the rat.
Direct intracerebral administration of sonic hedgehog ( SHH) reduces 6-OHDA and MPTP toxicity to nigral dopaminergic cells in rats and primates. To determine whether transfection of the DNA sequence for SHH using viral vectors also protects against 6-OHDA toxicity, a type 2 adeno- associated virus (AAV) incorporating 600 base pairs of N-terminal SHH DNA was generated to induce SHH expression in rat striatum.AAV- SHH was injected into the striatum, 3 weeks prior to the initiation of an unilateral partial 6-OHDA nigro-striatal lesion. Animals receiving 4x10(7) viral particles of AAV- SHH showed a reduction in (+)-amphetamine induced ipsilateral turning over 4 weeks, when compared to animals receiving vehicle or a LacZ encoding vector. Following vehicle or AAV-LacZ administration, 6-OHDA caused a marked loss of striatal dopamine content and nigral tyrosine hydroxylase ( TH) immunopositive cells. Following treatment with 4x10(7) viral particles of AAV- SHH the loss of striatal dopamine content was reduced and there was marked preservation of nigral dopaminergic cells. However, administration of 4x10(8) particles of AAV- SHH did not cause a significant change in (+)-amphetamine-induced rotation, striatal dopamine levels or the number of nigral TH immunoreactive cells following 6-OHDA lesioning compared to vehicle or AAV-LacZ treated animals.The results show that SHH delivered via a viral vector can protect dopaminergic neurons against 6-OHDA toxicity and suggest that this could be developed into a novel treatment for PD. However, the effects maybe dose limited due to uncoupling of hedgehog receptor signalling at higher levels of SHH expression.[1]References
- Sonic hedgehog delivered by an adeno-associated virus protects dopaminergic neurones against 6-OHDA toxicity in the rat. Dass, B., Iravani, M.M., Huang, C., Barsoum, J., Engber, T.M., Galdes, A., Jenner, P. Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) (2005) [Pubmed]
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