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Mice lacking caspase-2 are protected from behavioral changes, but not pathology, in the YAC128 model of Huntington disease Carroll, Jeffrey B; Southwell, Amber L; Graham, Rona K; Lerch, Jason P; Ehrnhoefer, Dagmar E; Cao, Li-Ping; Zhang, Wei-Ning; Deng, Yu; Bissada, Nagat; Mark Henkelman, R; Hayden, Michael R
Abstract
Background: Huntington Disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder in which caspase activation and cleavage of substrates, including the huntingtin protein, has been invoked as a pathological mechanism. Specific changes in caspase-2 (casp2) activity have been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD, however unique casp2 cleavage substrates have remained elusive. We thus utilized mice completely lacking casp2 (casp2-/-) to examine the role played by casp2 in the progression of HD. This 'substrate agnostic' approach allows us to query the effect of casp2 on HD progression without pre-defining proteolytic substrates of interest. Results YAC128 HD model mice lacking casp2 show protection from well-validated motor and cognitive features of HD, including performance on rotarod, swimming T-maze, pre-pulse inhibition, spontaneous alternation and locomotor tasks. However, the specific pathological features of the YAC128 mice including striatal volume loss and testicular degeneration are unaltered in mice lacking casp2. The application of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques validates specific neuropathology in the YAC128 mice that is not altered by ablation of casp2. Conclusions The rescue of behavioral phenotypes in the absence of pathological improvement suggests that different pathways may be operative in the dysfunction of neural circuitry in HD leading to behavioral changes compared to the processes leading to cell death and volume loss. Inhibition of caspase-2 activity may be associated with symptomatic improvement in HD.
Item Metadata
| Title |
Mice lacking caspase-2 are protected from behavioral changes, but not pathology, in the YAC128 model of Huntington disease
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| Creator | |
| Contributor | |
| Publisher |
BioMed Central
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| Date Issued |
2011-08-19
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| Description |
Background:
Huntington Disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder in which caspase activation and cleavage of substrates, including the huntingtin protein, has been invoked as a pathological mechanism. Specific changes in caspase-2 (casp2) activity have been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of HD, however unique casp2 cleavage substrates have remained elusive. We thus utilized mice completely lacking casp2 (casp2-/-) to examine the role played by casp2 in the progression of HD. This 'substrate agnostic' approach allows us to query the effect of casp2 on HD progression without pre-defining proteolytic substrates of interest.
Results
YAC128 HD model mice lacking casp2 show protection from well-validated motor and cognitive features of HD, including performance on rotarod, swimming T-maze, pre-pulse inhibition, spontaneous alternation and locomotor tasks. However, the specific pathological features of the YAC128 mice including striatal volume loss and testicular degeneration are unaltered in mice lacking casp2. The application of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques validates specific neuropathology in the YAC128 mice that is not altered by ablation of casp2.
Conclusions
The rescue of behavioral phenotypes in the absence of pathological improvement suggests that different pathways may be operative in the dysfunction of neural circuitry in HD leading to behavioral changes compared to the processes leading to cell death and volume loss. Inhibition of caspase-2 activity may be associated with symptomatic improvement in HD.
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| Subject | |
| Genre | |
| Type | |
| Language |
eng
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| Date Available |
2015-11-19
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| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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| Rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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| DOI |
10.14288/1.0228469
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| URI | |
| Affiliation | |
| Citation |
Molecular Neurodegeneration. 2011 Aug 19;6(1):59
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| Publisher DOI |
10.1186/1750-1326-6-59
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| Peer Review Status |
Reviewed
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| Scholarly Level |
Faculty
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| Copyright Holder |
Carroll et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
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| Rights URI | |
| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Rights
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)