Early alterations of autophagy in Huntington disease-like mice

In a recent study, we reported in vivo evidence of early and sustained alterations of autophagy markers in a novel knock-in mouse model of Huntington disease (HD). The novel model is derived from selective breeding of HdhQ150 knock-in mice to generate mice with ~200 CAG/polyglutamine repeats (HdhQ200). HdhQ200 knockin mice exhibit an accelerated and more robust motor phenotype than the parent line with detectable abnormalities at 50 weeks and substantial impairments at 80 weeks. Heterozygous HdhQ200 knock-in mice accumulate htt aggregates as cytoplasmic aggregation foci (AF) as early as 9 weeks of age followed by striatal neuronal intranuclear inclusions (NIIs) by 20 weeks. By 40 weeks, striatal AF are perinuclear and immunoreactive for ubiquitin and the autophagosome marker LC3. Increased LC3-II protein expression is noted at 9 weeks and sustained throughout the disease course, and is paralleled by increased expression of p62. Early and sustained expression of: autophagy-related proteins in this genetically precise mouse model of HD suggests that alteration of autophagic flux is an important and early component of neuronal response to polyglutamine expanded huntingtin.