The role of neurotrophins in anesthesia-induced developmental neuroapoptosis

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is the FIRCA Award application for the support of the research that will be done primarily in Serbia and Montenegro, in Laboratory for Molecular Neurobiology, the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Belgrade, Belgrade in collaboration with Vesna Jevtovic-Todorovic, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia, as an extension of NIH/NICHD parent grant #R01 HD 044517. Premature infants, neonates and very young children are frequently exposed to general anesthesia. However, some recent findings indicate that anesthetic drugs, by transiently suppressing neuronal activity in the developing mammalian brain, disturb normal brain development (e.g. synaptogenesis) thus promoting apoptotic cell death of the immature neurons. Anesthesia-induced apoptotic neurodegeneration in the immature rats, a species of interest for this proposal, was manifested not only as a severe widespread apoptotic neurodegeneration (e.g. neuroapoptosis) in the developing brain but also as a significant and persistent learning/memory deficits detected latter on in life. The neurotrophins, a family of growth factors, support neuronal survival, differentiation and several forms of synaptic plasticity and therefore play an important role in synaptogenesis of the mammalian brain. Consequently, extensive depression of neuronal activity can impair survival-promoting signals that are regulated by neurotrophins. To investigate the potential relevance of neurotrophin-mediated anesthesia-induced developmental neuroapoptosis we conducted a pilot study on infant rats (at the peak of their synaptogenesis-7 days old) that were exposed to an inhalational anesthetic, isoflurane, at clinically relevant concentration (1.5-vol% in air), for a period of 2, 4 or 6 hrs. We found that isoflurane modulates the key steps in neurotrophin-modulated apoptotic cascade in two most vulnerable brain regions - the cerebral cortex and the thalamus. Namely, the protein levels of activated Akt, a key component in blocking apoptotic cascade, were significantly decreased in both the cortex and the thalamus. However, the BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) protein levels were differentially modulated in the cortex; they were significantly increased, wherein in the thalamus there was a rapid and significant decrease in BDNF levels. In addition, while there was an up-regulation of the activated ceramide in the cortex there were no changes in ceramide activation in the thalamus: These findings suggest that isoflurane not only activates Akt-regulated apoptotic pathways, but does so in differential fashion in different brain regions most likely by activating both Trk dependent and Trk independent, p75NTR dependent neurotrophic survival pathways. In this grant application, the applicants plan to extend the studies of the mechanism of anesthesia-induced developmental apoptosis proposed in the parent grant by performing detailed studies of the mechanism(s) of neurotrophin-modulated anesthesia-induced neuroapoptosis. By expanding our understanding of all the crucial steps in the anesthesia-induced apoptotic cascade we hope to improve our chances of preventing potentially detrimental neurotoxic effects of general anesthetics to the developing mammalian brain.