Selective sparing of striatal interneurons after poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 inhibition in the R6/2 mouse model of huntington’s disease

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) are enzymes that catalyze ADP-ribose units transfer from NAD to their substrate proteins. It has been observed that PARP-1 is able to increase both post-ischemic and excitotoxic neuronal death. In fact, we have previously shown that, INO-1001, a PARP-1 inhibitor, displays a neuroprotective effect in the R6/2 model of Huntington’s disease (HD). In this study, we investigated the effects of PARP-1-inhibition on modulation of phosphorylated c-AMP response element binding protein (pCREB) and CREB-binding protein (CBP) localization in the different striatal neuronal subsets. Moreover, we studied the neurodegeneration of those interneurons that are particularly vulnerable to HD such as parvalbuminergic and calretininergic, and of other subclasses of interneurons that are known to be resistant, such as cholinergic and somatostatinergic interneurons. Transgenic mice were treated with INO-1001 (10 mg/Kg daily) starting from 4 weeks of age. Double-label immunofluorescence was performed to value the distribution of CBP in ubiquitinated Neuronal intranuclear inclusions (NIIs) in the striatum. INO-1001-treated and saline-treated brain sections were incubated with: goat anti-choline acetyl transferase; goat anti-nitric oxide synthase; mouse anti-parvalbumin and mouse anti-calretinin. Morphometric evaluation and cell counts were performed. Our study showed that the PARP inhibitor has a positive effect in sparing parvalbumin and calretinin-containing interneurons of the striatum, where CREB was upregulated. Moreover, INO-1001 promoted CBP localization into the nuclei of the R6/2 mouse. The sum of our data corroborates the previous observations indicating PARP inhibition as a possible therapeutic tool to fight HD.