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Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals Discrete Poststroke Dementia Neuronal and Gliovascular Signatures

ABSTRACT: Around 25% of stroke survivors over 65 years old develop progressive cognitive decline more than 3 months post-stroke, with features of vascular dementia. Poststroke dementia (PSD) is associated with pathology in frontal brain regions, in particular dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) neurons and white matter, remote from the infarct, implicating damage to anterior cognitive circuits (ACC) involved in impaired executive function. We hypothesised that PSD results from progressive neuronal damage in the DLPFC and that this is associated with alterations in the gliovascular unit (GVU) of frontal white matter. We aimed to identify the cellular and molecular basis of PSD by investigating the transcriptomic profile of the neurons and white matter GVU cells previously implicated in pathology. Laser capture microdissected neurons, astrocytes and endothelial cells were obtained from the Cognitive Function After Stroke (COGFAST) cohort. Gene expression was assessed using microarrays and pathways analysis to compare changes in PSD with controls and with poststroke non-dementia (PSND). Laser captured microdissected neurons were obtained from the bilateral carotid artery stenosis (BCAS) model and equivalent SHAM animals

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE186798 | GEO | 2022/06/01

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Currently, the mechanistic insights into the evolution and progression of VCID remain elusive. White matter change represents an invariant feature. Compelling clinical neuroimaging and pathological evidence suggest a link between white matter changes and neurodegeneration. Our prior study detected hypoperfused lesions in mice with partial deficiency of endothelial nitric oxide (eNOS) at very young age, precisely matching to those hypoperfused areas identified in preclinical AD patients. White matter tracts are particularly susceptible to the vascular damage induced by chronic hypoperfusion. Using immunohistochemistry, we detected severe demyelination in the middle aged eNOS-deficient mice. The demyelinated areas were confined to cortical and subcortical areas including the corpus callosum and hippocampus. The intensity of demyelination correlated with behavioral deficits of gait and associative recognition memory performances. By Evans blue angiography, we detected blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage as another early pathological change affecting frontal and parietal cortex in eNOS-deficient mic. Sodium nitrate fortified drinking water provided to young and middle aged eNOS-deficient mice completely prevented non-perfusion, BBB leakage, and white matter pathology, indicating that impaired endothelium-derived NO signaling may have caused these pathological events. Furthermore, genome-wide transcriptomic analysis revealed altered gene clusters most related to mitochondrial respiratory pathways selectively in the white matter of young eNOS-deficient mice. Using eNOS-deficient mice, we identified BBB breakdown and hypoperfusion as the two earliest pathological events, resulting from insufficient vascular NO signaling. We speculate that the compromised BBB and mild chronic hypoperfusion trigger vascular damage, along with oxidative stress and astrogliosis, accounting for the white matter pathological changes in the eNOS-deficient mouse model. We conclude that eNOS-deficient mice represent an ideal spontaneous evolving model for studying the earliest events leading to spontaneous white matter changes, which will be instrumental to future therapeutic testing of drug candidates and for targeting novel/specific vascular mechanisms contributing to VCID and AD.

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Transcriptomic Profiling Reveals Discrete Poststroke Dementia Neuronal and Gliovascular Signatures

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