Browsing by Subject "5-HT"

Prolyl oligopeptidase (PREP) is a serine protease which is extensively present in the mammalian system and especially abundant in the brain. Despite the long research history of PREP its physiological function has remained unclear. PREP has been suggested to regulate the functions of many bioactive peptides by hydrolysis and on the other hand to participate in several intracellular processes probably via direct protein-protein interactions. One of the functions suggested for PREP is the regulation of the brain neurotransmitter systems and based on, for instance, the location in the brain PREP has been connected to both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter systems. The literature review of this thesis first describe the brain neurotransmitter systems associated to PREP in general with some examples of diseases related to their malfunctions. In addition the structure of PREP and its location in the brain, both subcellular and cellular levels, and in distinct neurotransmitter systems, are presented, after which the different proposed functions for PREP are reviewed. The aim of the experimental part of this thesis was to investigate the effects of PREP on the brain neurotransmitter concentrations in the mouse nigrostriatal pathway and also to mouse motor behavior. The main research methods were microdialysis, tissue assays and cylinder test. The study was composed of two sections with five week duration each. The first section was performed with wild-type mice expressing naturally PREP and the second section with PREP-knockout (ko) mice and their wild-type littermates. The mice were injected unilaterally above the substantia nigra with adeno associated (AAV1) hPREP viral vector or with AAV1-eGFP (green fluorescent protein) viral vector as a control treatment. The cylinder test was carried out before the injection, and two and four weeks afterwards. Microdialysis was used to study the actions of PREP on the extracellular concentrations of dopamine (DA) and its metabolites dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the major metabolite of serotonin (5-HT). In addition to the baseline assay the concentrations were measured after two amphetamine treatments (10 and 30 µM) administered via the microdialysis probe. The probe guide cannulas were inserted to mice striatums 1-2 weeks before the microdialysis measurement. In the end of the experiment the tissue concentrations of DA, DOPAC, HVA, 5-HT and 5-HIAA were measured from striatum and substantia nigra. Both the microdialysis and tissue sample concentrations were quantified with high performance liquid chromatography. In the first study section the PREP enzyme activity was also determined from striatum. Neither the complete deprivation nor over-expression of PREP in the nigrostriatal pathway had clear or consistent effects on the levels of neurotransmitters studied when compared to naturally occurring PREP expression. When comparing the differences between control treated groups of PREP-ko and littermate mice, a greater amphetamine stimulated DA-levels was seen in the former group proposing negative regulatory influence of PREP. In both study sections the tissue assay results were difficult to interpret due to observed responses also with AAV1-eGFP control treatment in comparison with untreated side of the brain. This was seen as a lower DA- and DOPAC-levels in substantia nigra and thus the meaning of the changes caused by PREP treatment is hard to comprehend. The results of the cylinder test may implicate some protective effect of the PREP-ko-genotype against viral vector injections in general. Then again the existence of compensatory mechanisms is possible when using knockout animals and thus the genotype differences are hardly ever unequivocal. The results of this thesis do not suggest outright regulatory effects of PREP on the neurotransmitter functions in the mouse nigrostriatal pathway although the confirmation of this requires further studies, especially in regard to GABAergic and glutamatergic systems. Studies should include a scale of different behavioral tests of motor activity and repeated microdialysis experiment with some defining method changes. The possible function and mechanisms of PREP as a regulator of neurotransmitter intake or release is rationale to study at molecular level with applicable methods.