The involvement of Slc7a11/xCT related iron accumulation on acupuncture intervention in 6-OHDA-induced Parkinson rat

Abstract

BackgroundAcupuncture plays a critical role for the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), which is characterized by ferroptosis of dopaminergic neurons. It has been found that acupuncture can reduce iron accumulation. However, the mechanism of acupuncture therapy against PD by inhibiting ferroptosis remains unclear. ObjectiveTo investigate the potential mechanism of acupuncture on alleviating ferroptosis in 6-OHDA-induced PD rats. MethodsMale Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham group, acupuncture group, and PD model group, with the PD model induced by 6-OHDA. The motor function of the rats was tested by the rotation test and suspension test, respectively. Immunohistochemistry and iron staining were performed to analyze nerve damage, and the effect of acupuncture on the accumulation of iron in the substantia nigra (SN). RNA-seq analysis in the SN of rats were performed to discover ferroptosis-related genes. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) resulted from the acupuncture treatment were identified and were used for Gene Ontology (GO) function, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses. A protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed, and alternative splicing (AS) analysis of the transcriptome was performed. Western blot was used to detect the protein level change of Slc7a11/xCT. ResultsRotation test and suspension test indicated a positive effect of acupuncture on body weight gain and limb function. Perl's iron staining and ELISA test detected 6-OHDA induced iron accumulation in the SN and nerve damage, which was mitigated by acupuncture treatment. Acupuncture treatment brought about the differential expression of a total of 1088 genes in the SN of rats. GO and KEGG enrichment revealed that such DEGs were mainly associated with several key biological process (BP), cellular component (CC) and molecular function (MF) terms. These terms included collagen fibril organization, extracellular matrix organization, collagen trimer, extracellular matrix components, chemokine receptor binding and cargo receptor activity, etc. Additionally, the DEGs were found to be involved in pathways such as complement and coagulation. The PPI network of DEGs suggested a critical role of Slc7a11, which was further supported by an up-regulated Slc7a11/xCT protein level in the substantia nigra (SN) tissue of rats treated with acupuncture compared to their PD model counterparts (P = 0.045). ConclusionAcupuncture may prevent ferroptosis through Slc7a11/xCT as one of the targets in 6-OHDA-induced PD model and thereby could be promising for PD treatment.