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Papers of the Week


Papers: 8 Jan 2022 - 14 Jan 2022


Animal Studies, Pharmacology/Drug Development


2022 Jan 05


J Neurosci

The anti-inflammatory agent bindarit attenuates the impairment of neural development through suppression of microglial activation in a neonatal hydrocephalus mouse model.

Authors

Iwasawa E, Brown FN, Shula C, Kahn F, Lee S, Berta T, Ladle DR, Campbell K, Mangano FT, Goto J
J Neurosci. 2022 Jan 05.
PMID: 34992132.

Abstract

Neonatal hydrocephalus presents with various degrees of neuroinflammation and long-term neurological deficits in surgically treated patients, provoking a need for additional medical treatment. We previously reported elevated neuroinflammation and severe periventricular white matter damage in the () mutant which contains a point mutation in the gene, causing loss of cilia-mediated unidirectional cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow. In this study, we identified cortical neuropil maturation defects such as impaired excitatory synapse maturation and loss of homeostatic microglia, and swimming locomotor defects in early postnatal mutant mice. Strikingly, systemic application of the anti-inflammatory small molecule bindarit significantly supports healthy postnatal cerebral cortical development in the mutant. While bindarit only mildly reduced the ventricular volume, it significantly improved the edematous appearance and myelination of the corpus callosum. Moreover, the treatment attenuated thinning in cortical layers II-IV, excitatory synapse formation, and interneuron morphogenesis, by supporting the ramified-shaped homeostatic microglia from excessive cell death. Also, the therapeutic effect led to the alleviation of a spastic locomotor phenotype of the mutant. We found that microglia, but not peripheral monocytes, contribute to amoeboid-shaped activated myeloid cells in mutants' corpus callosum and the pro-inflammatory cytokines expression. Bindarit blocks NF-kB activation and its downstream pro-inflammatory cytokines, including monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, in the mutant. Collectively, we revealed that amelioration of neuroinflammation is crucial for white matter and neuronal maturation in neonatal hydrocephalus. Future studies of bindarit treatment combined with CSF diversion surgery may provide long-term benefits supporting neuronal development in neonatal hydrocephalus.In neonatal hydrocephalus, little is known about the signalling cascades of neuroinflammation or the impact of such inflammatory insults on neural cell development within the perinatal cerebral cortex. Here, we report that pro-inflammatory activation of myeloid cells, the majority of which are derived from microglia, impairs periventricular myelination and cortical neuronal maturation using the mouse genetic model of neonatal hydrocephalus. Administration of bindarit, an anti-inflammatory small molecule that blocks NF-kB activation, restored the cortical thinning and synaptic maturation defects in the mutant brain through suppression of microglial activation. These data indicate the potential therapeutic use of anti-inflammatory reagents targeting neuroinflammation in the treatment of neonatal hydrocephalus.