Cerebellar axonopathy in Shivers horses identified by spatial transcriptomic and proteomic analyses

Shivers in horses is characterized by abnormal hindlimb movement when walking backward and is proposed to be caused by a Purkinje cell (PC) axonopathy based on histopathology.

Define region-specific differences in gene expression within the lateral cerebellar hemisphere and compare cerebellar protein expression between Shivers horses and controls.

Case-control study of 5 Shivers and 4 control geldings ≥16.2 hands in height.

Using spatial transcriptomics, gene expression was compared between Shivers and control horses in PC soma and lateral cerebellar hemisphere white matter, consisting primarily of axons. Tandem-mass-tag (TMT-11) proteomic analysis was performed on lateral cerebellar hemisphere homogenates.

Differences in gene expression between Shivers and control horses were evident in principal component analysis of axon-containing white matter but not PC soma. In white matter, there were 455/1846 differentially expressed genes (DEG; 350 ↓DEG, 105 ↑DEG) between Shivers and controls, with significant gene set enrichment of the Toll-Like Receptor 4 (TLR4) cascade, highlighting neuroinflammation. There were 50/936 differentially expressed proteins (DEP). The 27 ↓DEP highlighted loss of axonal proteins including intermediate filaments (5), myelin (3), cytoskeleton (2), neurite outgrowth (2), and Na/K ATPase (1). The 23 ↑DEP were involved in the extracellular matrix (7), cytoskeleton (7), redox balance (2), neurite outgrowth (1), signal transduction (1), and others.

Our findings support axonal degeneration as a characteristic feature of Shivers. Combined with histopathology, these findings are consistent with the known distinctive response of PC to injury where axonal changes occur without a substantial impact on PC soma.