Long-Term Hyperglycemia Induces α-Synuclein Aggregation and Dopaminergic Neuronal Loss in Parkinson's Disease Mouse Model

Abstract Background: Growing evidence suggest the association between Parkinson’s disease (PD) and diabetes mellitus (DM). On a cellular level, it was proven that long-term elevated levels of glucose might lead to nigrostriatal degeneration in PD models. However, the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Previously, we have elucidated the potential of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in facilitating PD progression, involving aggregation of both alpha-synuclein (α-syn) and islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) in the pancreatic and brain tissues. However, due to the complicated effect of insulin resistance on PD onset, the actual mechanism of hyperglycemia-induced dopaminergic degeneration remains unknown. Methods: In the present study, we employed the type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) model induced by streptozotocin (STZ) injection, to investigate the direct effect of elevated blood glucose level on nigrostriatal degeneration. Results: We found that STZ treatment induced more severe pathological alterations in the pancreatic islets and T1DM symptoms in α-syn-overexpression mice than that in wild type (WT) mice, one month and three months after STZ injections. Behavioral tests evaluating motor performance confirmed the nigrostriatal degeneration. Furthermore, we observed a marked decrease in dopaminergic profiles and an increase of α-syn accumulation and Serine 129 (S129) phosphorylation in STZ-treated α-syn mice compared with vehicle-treated mice. At last, we observed more severe neuroinflammation in the brain of the STZ-treated α-syn mice.Conclusion: Our results solidify the potential link between DM and PD, providing insights on how hyperglycemia induces nigrostriatal degeneration and contributes to pathogenetic mechanisms in PD.