Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of calcineurin corrects the BDNF transport defect in Huntington's disease.
BACKGROUND
Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurogenerative disease caused by an abnormal expansion of glutamine repeats in the huntingtin protein. There is currently no treatment to prevent the neurodegeneration caused by this devastating disorder. Huntingtin has been shown to be a positive regulator of vesicular transport, particularly for neurotrophins such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This function is lost in patients with HD, resulting in a decrease in neurotrophic support and subsequent neuronal death. One promising line of treatment is therefore the restoration of huntingtin function in BDNF transport.


RESULTS
The phosphorylation of huntingtin at serine 421 (S421) restores its function in axonal transport. We therefore investigated whether inhibition of calcineurin, the bona fide huntingtin S421 phosphatase, restored the transport defects observed in HD. We found that pharmacological inhibition of calcineurin by FK506 led to sustained phosphorylation of mutant huntingtin at S421. FK506 restored BDNF transport in two complementary models: rat primary neuronal cultures expressing mutant huntingtin and mouse cortical neurons from Hdh(Q111/Q111) HD knock-in mice. This effect was the result of specific calcineurin inhibition, as calcineurin silencing restored both anterograde and retrograde transport in neurons from Hdh(Q111/Q111) mice. We also observed a specific increase in calcineurin activity in the brain of Hdh(Q111/Q111) mice potentially accounting for the selective loss of huntingtin phosphorylation and contributing to neuronal cell death in HD.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results validate calcineurin as a target for the treatment of HD and provide the first demonstration of the restoration of huntingtin function by an FDA-approved compound.
Institut Curie, Unité Mixte de Recherche 146, F-91405 Orsay, France. Jose-Ramon.Pineda-Marti@curie.u-psud.fr
Jose R
JR
Pineda
Raúl
R
Pardo
Diana
D
Zala
Hua
H
Yu
Sandrine
S
Humbert
Frédéric
F
Saudou
D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport / Q000187:drug effects; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D019703:Calcineurin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D065095:Calcineurin Inhibitors; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D010455:Peptides / Q000378:metabolism; D010766:Phosphorylation / Q000187:drug effects; D010768:Phosphoserine / Q000378:metabolism; D034622:RNA Interference / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D016559:Tacrolimus / Q000494:pharmacology*
D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D065095:Calcineurin Inhibitors; C506812:Htt protein, mouse; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010455:Peptides; D010768:Phosphoserine; C097188:polyglutamine; D019703:Calcineurin; D016559:Tacrolimus