Dataset Information

SIRT3 is required for the protective function of ketogenic diet on neural inflammation and neuropathic pain

ABSTRACT: Chronic neural inflammation is the key pathology of neuropathic pain. The ketogenic diet (KD) has been shown to reduce neural inflammation and hyperexcitability in Alzheimer's disease. However, the function and mechanism of KD in neuropathic pain remains unclear. In this study, we first found that the KD production was decreased upon neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI). Then we demonstrated that KD effectively alleviated CCI-induced thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia and relieved neuroinflammation by reducing microglia activation and pro-inflammatory cytokines. β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), a major component of KD, reduced ROS production by enhancing mitochondrial membrane potential in microglia, thereby decreasing microglia-induced inflammatory responses. In vivo and in vitro experiments revealed that the expression of UCP2, SIRT3 and PGC-1α expression in the spinal dorsal horn was increased by KD. SIRT3-deficiency abolished the protective function of KD on neuropathic pain. Additionally, SIRT3 deficiency decreased BHB production due to the reduced expression of ketone body synthases in the liver and ketone body-utilizing enzymes in the spinal dorsal horn. These findings suggest that SIRT3 is a promising therapeutic target for neuropathic pain, particularly in the context of a ketogenic diet, which may inspire novel therapeutic strategies and potentially improve patient prognosis and quality of life.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE277072 | GEO | 2025/05/29

REPOSITORIES: GEO

ACCESS DATA

Dataset's files

Source:

			Action	DRS
		Other

Items per page:

1 - 1 of 1

Similar Datasets

Project description:In Alzheimer’s disease, dysfunctional microglia possess abnormal immunometabolic features that cause neuronal/synaptic damage and aggravate pathology. A critical question is how to reverse or fine-tune abnormal microglial metabolism towards beneficial immunometabolic outcomes. A major metabolic intervention strategy to raise circulating ketone levels for health benefits, such as by consumption of a ketogenic diet 1, fasting, or other approaches collectively called ketotherapeutics, has raised a great deal of interest, but its effects on microglia are not well understood. Our previous in vitro study showed that β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), a major ketone body, reverses multiple pathological features of amyloid-β oligomer (AβO)-activated human microglia. In the current study, we tested the in vivo effects of BHB on microglia and synaptic plasticity in the 5xFAD Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. To capture the metabolic impact of BHB on microglia, we employed a “subacute” 1-week regimen of daily intraperitoneal injection of BHB (250 mg/kg), which induced brief and mild episodic (daily) ketosis. This short regimen was able to mitigate pro-inflammatory microglia activation linked to NLRP3 inflammasome formation, and reduce brain amyloid-β deposition by enhancing phagocytosis. Remarkably, this regimen mitigated the deficits of hippocampal long-term depression but not long-term potentiation, and this effect was linked to suppression of the inflammasome-generated cytokine IL-1β. Our results suggest that short-term BHB treatment may ameliorate microglial abnormalities and microglia-regulated synaptic deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. Because beneficial results were achieved with mild episodic BHB elevation alone without diet restriction and without the need of feeding a KD, our results have significant implications to human ketotherapeutics. As KDs are known for poor compliance and low sustainability due to their restrictive nature, our study opens the possibility for alternative ketogenic approaches that are less restrictive, potentially safer, and easier for compliance than a KD, such as short-term BHB injections or dietary ketone esters, a translatable form of induced ketosis.

Project description:Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is a ketone body synthesized during fasting or strenuous exercise. Our previous study demonstrated that a cyclic ketogenic diet (KD), which induces BHB levels similar to fasting every other week, reduces midlife mortality and improves memory in aging mice. BHB actively regulates gene expression and inflammatory activation through non-energetic signaling pathways. Neither of these activities has been well-characterized in the brain and they may represent mechanisms by which BHB affects brain function during aging. First, we analyzed hepatic gene expression in an aging KD-treated mouse cohort using bulk RNA-seq. In addition to the downregulation of TOR pathway activity, cyclic KD reduces inflammatory gene expression in the liver. We observed via flow cytometry that KD also modulates age-related systemic T cell functions. Next, we investigated whether BHB affects brain cells transcriptionallyin vitro. Gene expression analysis in primary human brain cells (microglia, astrocytes, neurons) using RNA-seq shows that BHB causes a mild level of inflammation in all three cell types. However, BHB inhibits the more pronounced LPS-induced inflammatory gene activation in microglia. Furthermore, we confirmed that BHB similarly reduces LPS-induced inflammation in primary mouse microglia and bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs). BHB is recognized as an inhibitor of histone deacetylase (HDAC), an inhibitor of NLRP3 inflammasome, and an agonist of the GPCR Hcar2. Nevertheless, in microglia, BHB's anti-inflammatory effects are independent of these known mechanisms. Finally, we examined the brain gene expression of 12-month-old male mice fed with one-week and one-year cyclic KD. While a one-week KD increases inflammatory signaling, a one-year cyclic KD reduces neuroinflammation induced by aging. In summary, our findings demonstrate that BHB mitigates the microglial response to inflammatory stimuli, like LPS, possibly leading to decreased chronic inflammation in the brain after long-term KD treatment in aging mice.

Dataset Information

SIRT3 is required for the protective function of ketogenic diet on neural inflammation and neuropathic pain

Dataset's files

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets