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Genome-wide analysis of RARβ transcriptional targets in mouse striatum links retinoic acid signaling with Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

ABSTRACT: The active vitamin A derivative retinoic acid (RA) is an important regulator of adult brain functions. How these regulations are achieved is poorly known, partly due to the paucity of information on RA molecular targets. The striatum, the region involved in control of motor, cognitive and affective functions, may be particularly prone to such regulation as it displays the highest levels of RA and its receptors (RARs). We report the first genome-wide analysis of RAR-binding sites in the brain. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq), as well as transcriptomic analysis of RARβ-null mutant mice, we identified genomic transcriptional targets of RARβ in the striatum. Our data point to a strong contribution of RARβ in controlling neurotransmission, energy metabolism, and transcription, with a particular involvement of G-protein, cAMP and calcium signaling. Quantitative PCR analysis of striatal subregions revealed a higher sensitivity of ventral structures (nucleus accumbens) to lack of RARβ signaling. There is a high overlap of transcriptional targets of RARβ and genes affected in expression in Huntington’s disease (HD), and we observed a decrease of RARβ expression in the striatum of R6/2 transgenic mice, a murine model of HD. A large number of genes bearing RARβ binding sites have also been implicated in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, raising the possibility that compromised RA signaling in striatum may be a mechanistic link explaining the similar affective and cognitive symptoms of these diseases. Globally, our data point to a possibility of a neuroprotective function of RARβ in the striatum.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE67829 | GEO | 2016/07/22

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA281007

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Huntington’s disease is a fatal autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by neuronal cell loss, primarily in the striatum, cortex, and hippocampus, causing motor, cognitive, and psychiatric impairments. Unfortunately, no treatments are yet available to modify the progression of the disease. Recent evidence from Huntington’s disease mouse models suggests that protein phosphorylation (catalysed by kinases and hydrolysed by phosphatases) might be dysregulated, making this major posttranslational modification a potential area of interest to find novel therapeutic targets. Furthermore, environmental enrichment (EE), used to model an active lifestyle in preclinical models, has been shown to alleviate Huntington’s disease-related motor and cognitive symptoms. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to these therapeutic effects are still largely unknown. In this study, we applied a phosphoproteomics approach combined with proteomic analyses on brain samples from pre-motor symptomatic R6/1 Huntington’s disease male mice (HD mice) and their wild-type (WT) littermates, after being housed either in EE conditions, or in standard housing (SH) conditions from 4 to 8 weeks of age (n=6 per group). We hypothesised that protein phosphorylation dysregulations occur prior to motor onset in this mouse model, in two highly affected brain regions, the striatum and hippocampus. Furthermore, we hypothesised that these phosphoproteome alterations are rescued by EE. When comparing 8-week-old HD mice and WT mice in SH conditions, our analysis revealed 229 differentially phosphorylated peptides in the striatum, compared to only 15 differentially phosphorylated peptides in the hippocampus (statistical thresholds FDR0.05, FC1.5). At the same disease stage, minor differences were found in protein expression, with 24 and 22 proteins dysregulated in the striatum and hippocampus, respectively. Notably, we found no differences in striatal protein phosphorylation and protein expression when comparing HD mice and their WT littermates in EE conditions. In the hippocampus, only four peptides were differentially phosphorylated between the two genotypes under EE conditions, and 22 proteins were differentially expressed. Together, our data indicates that protein phosphorylation dysregulations occur in the striatum of HD mice, prior to motor symptoms, and that the kinases and phosphatases leading to these changes in protein phosphorylation might be viable drug targets to consider for this disorder. Furthermore, we show that an early environmental intervention was able to rescue the changes observed in protein expression and phosphorylation in the striatum of HD mice and might underlie the beneficial effects of EE, thus identifying novel therapeutic targets.

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Genome-wide analysis of RARβ transcriptional targets in mouse striatum links retinoic acid signaling with Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

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