Big data analysis of whole striatum transcriptome after L-DOPA or Pramipexole treatment in a rat model of Parkinson?s disease

CURA AC.; GOMEZ G.; GLAAB E.; OSTASZEWSKI M.; GONÇALVEZ J.; GERSHANIK OS.; TARAVINI IRE.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XXXII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia; 2017

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencia

L-DOPA is the most effective treatment of Parkinson´s disease (PD), but it frequently producesresponse fluctuations and abnormal involuntary movements after long-term treatment.Pramipexole is a D2/D3 dopamine receptor agonist which has a lower efficacy but also alower propensity to induce motor complications. Therefore, it is likely that differentmolecular changes underlie these specific pharmacological responses. Transcriptomictechnologies have aided large-scale research to elucidate the link between a specific gene ora cluster of genes and a particular biological mechanism. We used DNA microarraytechnology to assess whether the striatal gene expression profiles of hemiparkinsonian ratstreated with L-DOPA or Pramipexole show statistically significant differences. To produce amodel of early PD, rats received a unilateral injection of 6-OHDA in the striatum and weretreated with L-DOPA or Pramipexole for three weeks. Differences in gene expression wereassessed using the empirical Bayes moderated t-statistic. Overall, more than a thousand ofgenes were differentially expressed. The PD map of the University of Luxembourg was usedas an exploratory tool to point out the localization of differentially expressed genes withinbiological pathways and compartments refining gene selection. This analysis will reveal newgenetic striatal networks possibly contributing to the therapeutic effects of the mostcommon treatments for PD.