α-Synuclein aggregation alters tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation and immunoreactivity: Lessons from viral transduction of knockout mice

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), the rate limiting enzyme in catecholamine synthesis, is frequently used as a marker of dopaminergic neuronal loss in animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD). We have been exploring the normal function of the PD-related protein α-synuclein (α-Syn) with regard to dopamine synthesis. TH is activated by the phosphorylation of key seryl residues in the TH regulatory domain. Using in vitro models, our laboratory discovered that α-Syn inhibits TH by acting to reduce TH phosphorylation, which then reduces dopamine synthesis [X.-M. Peng, R. Tehranian, P. Dietrich, L. Stefanis, R.G. Perez, Alpha-synuclein activation of protein phosphatase 2A reduces tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation in dopaminergic cells, J. Cell. Sci. 118 (2005) 3523–3530; R.G. Perez, J.C. Waymire, E. Lin, J.J. Liu, F. Guo, M.J. Zigmond, A role for alpha-synuclein in the regulation of dopamine biosynthesis, J. Neurosci. 22 (2002) 3090–3099]. We recently began exploring the impact of α-Syn on TH in vivo, by transducing dopaminergic neurons in α-Syn knockout mouse (ASKO) olfactory bulb using wild type human α-Syn lentivirus. At 3.5–21 days after viral delivery, α-Syn expression was transduced primarily in periglomerular dopaminergic neurons. Cells with modest levels of α-Syn consistently co-labeled for Total-TH. However, cells bearing aggregated α-Syn, as revealed by proteinase K or Thioflavin-S treatment had significantly reduced Total-TH immunoreactivity, but high phosphoserine-TH labeling. On immunoblots, we noted that Total-TH immunoreactivity was equivalent in all conditions, although tissues with α-Syn aggregates again had higher phosphoserine-TH levels. This suggests that aggregated α-Syn is no longer able to inhibit TH. Although the reason(s) underlying reduced Total-TH immunoreactivity on tissue sections await(s) confirmation, the dopaminergic phenotype was easily verified using phosphorylation-state-specific TH antibodies. These findings have implications not only for normal α-Syn function in TH regulation, but also for measuring cell loss that is associated with synucleinopathy.