Parkinson’s disease (PD) has become one of the most deadly diseases due to a lack of effective treatment. Herein, N-3,4-bis(pivaloyloxy)dopamine-3-(dimethylamino)propanamide (PDDP), a brain-specific derivative of dopamine, was designed and synthesized, which consists of a brain targeted ligand, N,N-dimethyl amino group, and two dipivaloyloxy groups for lipophilic modification. PDDP was investigated both in vitro and in vivo by comparing with L-DOPA and another derivative (BPD) without N,N-dimethyl amino group. PDDP showed a more pronounced accumulation in mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells (bEnd.3) than BPD via an active transport process. The increased cellular uptake of PDDP was proven to be mediated by putative pyrilamine cationic transporters. Following intravenous administration, the concentration of PDDP in the brain was 269.28-fold and 6.41-fold higher than that of L-DOPA and BPD at 5 min, respectively. Additionally, PDDP effectively attenuated the striatum lesion caused by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) in rats. More importantly, PDDP presented antioxidant and antiapoptotic effects on 6-OHDA-induced toxicity in human neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y). Thus, N,N-dimethyl amino group-based PDDP represents an effective and safe treatment for PD.
Xue-Yun Chen,Si-Ning Feng,Yin Bao,Yu-Xin Zhou,Fang Ba
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a therapeutic tool in PD. High-throughput sequencing was performed to screen potential therapeutic targets in unilaterally 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rats. The candidate gene, Clec7a, was screened out and validated. Clec7a is a pattern recognition receptor involved in neuroinflammation. The higher expression of Clec7a was observed in the substantia nigra (SN) and striatum of PD rats with dopaminergic neurons damage and was mainly localized in the microglial. Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated specific knockdown of Clec7a in microglial alleviated 6-OHDA induced motor deficits and nigrostriatal dopaminergic neuron damage of rats, as evidenced by the increase of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) -positive neurons in SN, as well as dopaminergic nerve fibers in the striatum. Clec7a knockdown restrained the neuroinflammation by suppressing inflammatory factors (IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, and IL-6) release in SN, which might result from enhanced Arg-1 expression (M2 polarization) and defective inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression (M1 polarization). The same phenomena were also observed in the LPS inflammatory rat model of PD. In vitro, α-synuclein fibrils induced upregulation of Clec7a expression and microglia polarization to a pro-inflammatory state of BV2 cells, leading to increased release of cytokines. However, Clec7a knockdown reversed those changes and induced a shift to an anti-inflammatory phenotype in BV2 cells. In conclusion, our study suggested that Clec7a was involved in PD pathogenesis, and its inhibition might protect rats from PD by depressing neuroinflammation through microglial polarization.