Modeling α-Synucleinopathy in Organotypic Brain Slice Culture with Preformed α-Synuclein Amyloid Fibrils

Synucleinopathy is a group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by neurodegeneration and accumulation of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates in various brain regions. The detailed mechanism of α-syn-caused neurotoxicity remains obscure, which is partly due to the lack of a suitable model that retains the in vivo three-dimensional cellular network and allows a convenient dissection of the neurotoxic pathways. Recent studies revealed that the pre-formed recombinant α-syn amyloid fibrils (PFFs) induce a robust accumulation of pathogenic α-syn species in cultured cells and animals.

Our goal is to determine whether PFFs are able to induce the pathogenic α-syn accumulation and neurotoxicity in organotypic brain slice culture, an ex vivo system that retains the in vivo three-dimensional cell-cell connections.

Adding PFFs to cultured wild-type rat or mouse brain slices induced a time-dependent accumulation of pathogenic α-syn species, which was indicated by α-syn phosphorylated at serine 129 (pα-syn). The PFF-induced pα-syn was abolished in brain slices prepared from α-syn null mice, suggesting that the pα-syn is from the phosphorylation of endogenous α-syn. Human PFFs also induced pα-syn in brain slices prepared from mice expressing human α-syn on a mouse α-syn-null background. Furthermore, the synaptophysin immunoreactivity was inversely associated with pα-syn accumulation and an increase of neuronal loss was detected.

PFF-treatment of brain slices is able to induce key pathological features of synucleinopathy: pα-syn accumulation and neurotoxicity. This model will be useful for investigating the neurotoxic mechanism and evaluating efficacy of therapeutic approaches.