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Cameron EG, Nahmou M, Toth AB, Heo L, Tanasa B, Dalal R, Yan W, Nallagatla P, Xia X, Hay S, Knasel C, Stiles TL, Douglas C, Atkins M, Sun C, Ashouri M, Bian M, Chang KC, Russano K, Shah S, Woodworth MB, Galvao J, Nair RV, Kapiloff MS, Goldberg JL. A molecular switch for neuroprotective astrocyte reactivity. Nature 2024; 626:574-582. [PMID: 38086421 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06935-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024]
Abstract
The intrinsic mechanisms that regulate neurotoxic versus neuroprotective astrocyte phenotypes and their effects on central nervous system degeneration and repair remain poorly understood. Here we show that injured white matter astrocytes differentiate into two distinct C3-positive and C3-negative reactive populations, previously simplified as neurotoxic (A1) and neuroprotective (A2)1,2, which can be further subdivided into unique subpopulations defined by proliferation and differential gene expression signatures. We find the balance of neurotoxic versus neuroprotective astrocytes is regulated by discrete pools of compartmented cyclic adenosine monophosphate derived from soluble adenylyl cyclase and show that proliferating neuroprotective astrocytes inhibit microglial activation and downstream neurotoxic astrocyte differentiation to promote retinal ganglion cell survival. Finally, we report a new, therapeutically tractable viral vector to specifically target optic nerve head astrocytes and show that raising nuclear or depleting cytoplasmic cyclic AMP in reactive astrocytes inhibits deleterious microglial or macrophage cell activation and promotes retinal ganglion cell survival after optic nerve injury. Thus, soluble adenylyl cyclase and compartmented, nuclear- and cytoplasmic-localized cyclic adenosine monophosphate in reactive astrocytes act as a molecular switch for neuroprotective astrocyte reactivity that can be targeted to inhibit microglial activation and neurotoxic astrocyte differentiation to therapeutic effect. These data expand on and define new reactive astrocyte subtypes and represent a step towards the development of gliotherapeutics for the treatment of glaucoma and other optic neuropathies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan G Cameron
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
| | - Michael Nahmou
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Anna B Toth
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Lyong Heo
- Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Bogdan Tanasa
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Roopa Dalal
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Wenjun Yan
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Pratima Nallagatla
- Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Xin Xia
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Sarah Hay
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Cara Knasel
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Melissa Atkins
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Catalina Sun
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Masoumeh Ashouri
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Minjuan Bian
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Kun-Che Chang
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Kristina Russano
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Sahil Shah
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
- University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Mollie B Woodworth
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Joana Galvao
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Ramesh V Nair
- Stanford Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Michael S Kapiloff
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
- Department of Medicine and Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Jeffrey L Goldberg
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
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Shah SH, Schiapparelli LM, Ma Y, Yokota S, Atkins M, Xia X, Cameron EG, Huang T, Saturday S, Sun CB, Knasel C, Blackshaw S, Yates Iii JR, Cline HT, Goldberg JL. Quantitative transportomics identifies Kif5a as a major regulator of neurodegeneration. eLife 2022; 11:68148. [PMID: 35259089 PMCID: PMC8947766 DOI: 10.7554/elife.68148] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Many neurons in the adult central nervous system, including retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), degenerate and die after injury. Early axon protein and organelle trafficking failure is a key component in many neurodegenerative disorders yet changes to axoplasmic transport in disease models have not been quantified. We analyzed early changes in the protein ‘transportome’ from RGC somas to their axons after optic nerve injury and identified transport failure of an anterograde motor protein Kif5a early in RGC degeneration. We demonstrated that manipulating Kif5a expression affects anterograde mitochondrial trafficking in RGCs and characterized axon transport in Kif5a knockout mice to identify proteins whose axon localization was Kif5a-dependent. Finally, we found that knockout of Kif5a in RGCs resulted in progressive RGC degeneration in the absence of injury. Together with expression data localizing Kif5a to human RGCs, these data identify Kif5a transport failure as a cause of RGC neurodegeneration and point to a mechanism for future therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sahil H Shah
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | | | - Yuanhui Ma
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, United States
| | - Satoshi Yokota
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | - Melissa Atkins
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | - Xin Xia
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | - Evan G Cameron
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | - Thanh Huang
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
| | - Sarah Saturday
- Neuroscience Department, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, United States
| | - Catalin B Sun
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | - Cara Knasel
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
| | - Seth Blackshaw
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, United States
| | - John R Yates Iii
- Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, United States
| | - Hollis T Cline
- Neuroscience Department, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, United States
| | - Jeffrey L Goldberg
- Byers Eye Institute and Spencer Center for Vision Research, Stanford University, Palo Alto, United States
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Xia X, Yu CY, Bian M, Sun CB, Tanasa B, Chang KC, Bruffett DM, Thakur H, Shah SH, Knasel C, Cameron EG, Kapiloff MS, Goldberg JL. MEF2 transcription factors differentially contribute to retinal ganglion cell loss after optic nerve injury. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0242884. [PMID: 33315889 PMCID: PMC7735573 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in optic neuropathies results in permanent partial or complete blindness. Myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) transcription factors have been shown to play a pivotal role in neuronal systems, and in particular MEF2A knockout was shown to enhance RGC survival after optic nerve crush injury. Here we expanded these prior data to study bi-allelic, tri-allelic and heterozygous allele deletion. We observed that deletion of all MEF2A, MEF2C, and MEF2D alleles had no effect on RGC survival during development. Our extended experiments suggest that the majority of the neuroprotective effect was conferred by complete deletion of MEF2A but that MEF2D knockout, although not sufficient to increase RGC survival on its own, increased the positive effect of MEF2A knockout. Conversely, MEF2A over-expression in wildtype mice worsened RGC survival after optic nerve crush. Interestingly, MEF2 transcription factors are regulated by post-translational modification, including by calcineurin-catalyzed dephosphorylation of MEF2A Ser-408 known to increase MEF2A-dependent transactivation in neurons. However, neither phospho-mimetic nor phospho-ablative mutation of MEF2A Ser-408 affected the ability of MEF2A to promote RGC death in vivo after optic nerve injury. Together these findings demonstrate that MEF2 gene expression opposes RGC survival following axon injury in a complex hierarchy, and further support the hypothesis that loss of or interference with MEF2A expression might be beneficial for RGC neuroprotection in diseases such as glaucoma and other optic neuropathies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Xia
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Caroline Y. Yu
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Minjuan Bian
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Catalina B. Sun
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Bogdan Tanasa
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Kun-Che Chang
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Dawn M. Bruffett
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Hrishikesh Thakur
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Sahil H. Shah
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Cara Knasel
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Evan G. Cameron
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
| | - Michael S. Kapiloff
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
- Department of Medicine and Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
- * E-mail: (MSK); (JLG)
| | - Jeffrey L. Goldberg
- Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer Center for Vision Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, United States of America
- * E-mail: (MSK); (JLG)
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