Novel Roles for the Ectoenzyme CD38 in the Maintenance of Transcriptional and Metabolic Homeostasis in Astrocytes.

ABSTRACT: CD38 is an ectoenzyme that converts NAD+ to NAM to help maintain bioenergetic homeostasis. CD38 dysregulation and gene variation is reported in neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD), highlighting the need to better understand CD38 biology within the brain. Here, we demonstrate enrichment of Cd38 in midbrain astrocytes and describe how CD38 deficiency influences brain metabolism, astrocytic gene expression, and bioenergetics. We demonstrate increased NAD content, decreased NAM content, and increased NAD/NAM in the midbrain and striatum of CD38-deficient (Cd38^-/-) mice, indicating the dependence on CD38 for NAD to NAM conversion in the brain. RNA-sequencing of isolated astrocytes revealed numerous differentially expressed genes

SUBMITTER: Basak S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12706826 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature