Reduced Plasma-Membrane Calcium ATPase Activity and Extracellular Acidification Trigger Presynaptic Homeostatic...

At the vertebrate neuromuscular junction (NMJ), presynaptic homeostatic potentiation (PHP) refers to an increase in neurotransmitter release that restores the strength of synaptic transmission following a blockade of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs). Mechanisms informing the presynaptic terminal of the loss of postsynaptic receptivity remain poorly understood. Previous research at the mouse NMJ suggests that extracellular protons may function as a retrograde signal that triggers an upregulation of neurotransmitter output (measured by quantal content, QC) through the activation of acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs). We further investigated the pH-dependency of PHP in an ex-vivo mouse muscle preparation. We observed that increasing the buffering capacity of the perfusion saline with HEPES abolishes PHP and that acidifying the saline from pH 7.4 to pH 7.2-7.1 increases QC, demonstrating the necessity and sufficiency of extracellular acidification for PHP. We then sought to uncover how the blockade of nAChRs leads to the pH decrease. Plasma-membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA), a calcium-proton antiporter, is known to alkalize the synaptic cleft following neurotransmission in a calcium-dependent manner. We hypothesize that since nAChR blockade reduces postsynaptic calcium entry, it also reduces the alkalizing activity of the PMCA, thereby causing acidosis, ASIC activation, and QC upregulation. In line with this hypothesis, we found that pharmacological inhibition of the PMCA with carboxyeosin induces QC upregulation and that this effect requires functional ASICs. We also demonstrated that muscles pre-treated with carboxyeosin fail to generate PHP. These findings suggest that reduced PMCA activity causes presynaptic homeostatic potentiation by activating ASICs at the mouse NMJ.