Assessment of Glial Activation Response in the Progress of Natural Scrapie after Chronic Dexamethasone Treatment

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Pol Andrés-Benito¹  Isidro Ferrer¹  Margarita Carmona¹  Juan J. Badiola²  Isabel M. Guijarro²  Alicia Otero²  Marta Monzón²  Moisés Garcés²  Tomás Barrio²  Belén Marín² 

[1] Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, 08908 Barcelona, Spain;Research Centre for Encephalopathies and Transmissible Emerging Diseases—Institute for Health Research Aragón (IIS), University of Zaragoza, Spain. C/ Miguel Servet 155, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain;

关键词: scrapie;    dexamethasone;    neuroinflammation;    astrocytes;    microglia;    prion diseases;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms21093231

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Neuroinflammation has been correlated with the progress of neurodegeneration in many neuropathologies. Although glial cells have traditionally been considered to be protective, the concept of them as neurotoxic cells has recently emerged. Thus, a major unsolved question is the exact role of astroglia and microglia in neurodegenerative disorders. On the other hand, it is well known that glucocorticoids are the first choice to regulate inflammation and, consequently, neuroglial inflammatory activity. The objective of this study was to determine how chronic dexamethasone treatment influences the host immune response and to characterize the beneficial or detrimental role of glial cells. To date, this has not been examined using a natural neurodegenerative model of scrapie. With this aim, immunohistochemical expression of glial markers, prion protein accumulation, histopathological lesions and clinical evolution were compared with those in a control group. The results demonstrated how the complex interaction between glial populations failed to compensate for brain damage in natural conditions, emphasizing the need for using natural models. Additionally, the data showed that modulation of neuroinflammation by anti-inflammatory drugs might become a research focus as a potential therapeutic target for prion diseases, similar to that considered previously for other neurodegenerative disorders classified as prion-like diseases.

【 授权许可】

Unknown