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Dickey AS, Sanchez DN, Arreola M, Sampat KR, Fan W, Arbez N, Akimov S, Van Kanegan MJ, Ohnishi K, Gilmore-Hall SK, Flores AL, Nguyen JM, Lomas N, Hsu CL, Lo DC, Ross CA, Masliah E, Evans RM, La Spada AR. PPARδ activation by bexarotene promotes neuroprotection by restoring bioenergetic and quality control homeostasis. Sci Transl Med 2018; 9:9/419/eaal2332. [PMID: 29212711 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aal2332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2016] [Accepted: 08/09/2017] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Neurons must maintain protein and mitochondrial quality control for optimal function, an energetically expensive process. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-activated transcription factors that promote mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative metabolism. We recently determined that transcriptional dysregulation of PPARδ contributes to Huntington's disease (HD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder resulting from a CAG-polyglutamine repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene. We documented that the PPARδ agonist KD3010 is an effective therapy for HD in a mouse model. PPARδ forms a heterodimer with the retinoid X receptor (RXR), and RXR agonists are capable of promoting PPARδ activation. One compound with potent RXR agonist activity is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drug bexarotene. We tested the therapeutic potential of bexarotene in HD and found that bexarotene was neuroprotective in cellular models of HD, including medium spiny-like neurons generated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients with HD. To evaluate bexarotene as a treatment for HD, we treated the N171-82Q mouse model with the drug and found that bexarotene improved motor function, reduced neurodegeneration, and increased survival. To determine the basis for PPARδ neuroprotection, we evaluated metabolic function and noted markedly impaired oxidative metabolism in HD neurons, which was rescued by bexarotene or KD3010. We examined mitochondrial and protein quality control in cellular models of HD and observed that treatment with a PPARδ agonist promoted cellular quality control. By boosting cellular activities that are dysfunctional in HD, PPARδ activation may have therapeutic applications in HD and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Audrey S Dickey
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Dafne N Sanchez
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Martin Arreola
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Kunal R Sampat
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Weiwei Fan
- Gene Expression Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, CA 92037, USA
| | - Nicolas Arbez
- Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
| | - Sergey Akimov
- Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
| | - Michael J Van Kanegan
- Center for Drug Discovery and Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Kohta Ohnishi
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | | | - April L Flores
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Janice M Nguyen
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Nicole Lomas
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Cynthia L Hsu
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Donald C Lo
- Center for Drug Discovery and Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Christopher A Ross
- Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Pharmacology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.,Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
| | - Eliezer Masliah
- Department of Pathology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Ronald M Evans
- Gene Expression Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, CA 92037, USA.,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, CA 92037, USA
| | - Albert R La Spada
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. .,Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Institute for Genomic Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.,Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
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