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Transcriptomics analysis of post-mortem substantia nigra samples from Parkinson’s disease patients and controls.

ABSTRACT: Purpose: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurological movement disorders. In the incidence and the clinical features of PD, significant gender differences have been observed. While males have a higher disease prevalence and are more frequently affected by muscle rigidity, females present more often with disabling tremors. The molecular mechanisms behind these disease-associated gender differences are still largely unknown, and a detailed understanding of the factors involved may open new avenues for pharmacological disease modification. Methods: To address this gap, we have conducted a meta-analysis of disease-associated molecular gender differences in brain transcriptomics data from PD case/control studies. We studied gender-dependent expression changes in individual genes and using systems level pathway and network analyses to identify coordinated gender-related molecular alterations. In each analysis, both gender-specific changes (significant alteration in only one gender) and gender-dimorphic changes (changes in both genders, but with opposite direction) were identified. Results: These analyses revealed significant disease-associated sex differences in immune response processes and mitochondrial pathways, and highlight regulatory factors, such as the transcription factor NR4A2, whose activity changes can explain ensuing alterations propagated through gene regulatory cascades. Overall, significant gender disparities were observed in PD-associated transcriptomic changes, resulting in coordinated modulations of molecular processes. Among the regulatory factors involved, NR4A2 has previously been reported to harbor rare mutations in familial PD and its pharmacological activation conferred neuroprotective effects in toxin-induced models of Parkinsonism. NR4A2 may therefore be of interest as a candidate target for further preclinical studies on addressing gender-related pathological features of PD.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE168496 | GEO | 2023/01/19

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Sub-thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS) reversibly modulates ParkinsonM-bM-^@M-^Ys disease (PD) motor symptoms, providing an unusual opportunity to compare leukocyte transcripts in the same subjects before and after neurosurgery and after disconnecting the stimulus (ON-and OFF-stimulus). Here, we report rapid stimulus-induced and largely reversible changes in PD leukocyte transcripts, which were larger in scope than the disease-induced changes. These transcript changes classified advanced pre- from post-surgery PD patients and discriminated patients from controls. Moreover, the extent of changes correlated with the neurological efficacy of the DBS neurosurgery, and covered both regulatory pathways and individual transcript changes, e.g. SNCA, PARK7 and the splicing factor SFRS1. Following 1 hour OFF-stimulus, these changes were largely reversed. We extracted from these differences a modified transcripts signature which discriminated controls from advanced PD patients, pre- from post-surgery and ON-from OFF-stimulus conditions. A further gene-list independent analysis detected reversed pathways. Our findings suggest future uses of this approach and the discovered molecular signature for early diagnostics of PD and for identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention in this and other DBS-treatable neurological diseases. 27 Total samples were analyzed. Study design included four conditions. PD patients (n=7) leukocyte blood samples were examined at 3 time points, and healthy control subjects (n=6) were examined once each. Samples were taken 1 day prior to sub-thalamic nucleous (STN) DBS treatment, several months after STN-DBS treatment upon optimal stimulation and following one hour electrical stimulation cessation. The off stimulation caused recruitment of the disease symptoms as measured by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor section (UPDRS-III). The different stages are designated: S1 (pre-treatment), S2 (post STN-DBS) and S3 (upon off stimulation). All patients were on dopamine replacement therapy (DRT) when examined pre- and post-DBS off stimulation (albeit with reduced therapy dose post-DBS). To reduce biological variability among the samples which is not related to the study, only male subjects were included in this study. Samples from six age- and gender- matched healthy control subjects served to detect disease modified transcripts and for pre- and post- treatment comparisons. The study was approved by the human review board at the Hadassah University Hospital, Ein-Kerem (no. 6-07.09.07) in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All study participants signed informed consent.

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Transcriptomics analysis of post-mortem substantia nigra samples from Parkinson’s disease patients and controls.

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