Atorvastatin Alleviates Behavioral Symptoms in MPTP-lesioned Mice: Associated With NOX2-mediated Autophagy and Oxidative Stress

Abstract Background Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons. It is characterized by static tremors, stiffness, slow movements, and gait disturbances, but it is also accompanied by anxiety and depression. Our previous study showed that statins, especially atorvastatin, could reduce the risk of PD, but the mechanism is still unclear. Results In this paper, we used an animal model of PD in which depression was determined by a tail suspension test, followed by an elevated plus-maze test to determine anxiety levels, and muscle status was measured by a rotarod test. We found that atorvastatin can increase muscle capacity and the coordination of movement and improved anxiety and depression，which mechanism may be related to decrease the expression of α-synuclein Ser129 and NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2), and increase the protein expression of LC-3II/LC3-I, and promote autophagy flow. To further confirm that atorvastatin protection was achieved by inhibiting NOX2, we injected the midbrain substratum with NOX2 shRNA (M) lentivirus and found that silent NOX2 produced the same effect as atorvastatin. Further research found that atorvastatin could reduce MPTP-induced oxidative stress damage by increasing Nrf2, NQO-1 and HO-1, while inhibiting NOX2 decreased the antioxidative stress effect of atorvastatin. Conclusions： Our results suggest that atorvastatin can improve muscle capacity, anxiety and depression by inhibiting NOX2, which may be related to NOX2-mediated oxidative stress and autophagy in dopaminergic neurons. Atorvastatin may be identified as a drug that can effectively improve behavioral disorders in PD mice. NOX2 may be a potential gene target for new drug development in PD.