Summary: Researchers have discovered an interaction between two brain proteins, MAP6 and Kv3.1, that affect movement, anxiety, and memory in mice.
The connection between these proteins is critical for maintaining these functions. When this connection is disrupted, it can lead to hyperactivity, reduced risk avoidance, and memory problems—symptoms also present in schizophrenia.
Researchers believe understanding this interaction could offer new avenues for schizophrenia treatments.
Key Facts:
- The study is the first to highlight that proteins MAP6 and Kv3.1 interact under normal conditions, influencing behavior in mice.
- Disruption in this interaction led to behavioral symptoms often associated with schizophrenia, such as hyperactivity and memory problems.
- Previous studies identified these proteins as risk genes for schizophrenia based on dysfunction seen in brain tissue.
Source: Ohio State University
The discovery of a physical interaction between two proteins in brain cells that can be traced in mice to control of movement, anxiety and memory could one day open the door to development of new schizophrenia treatment strategies, researchers say.
The research group is the first to determine that the two proteins, both among the dozens of proteins related to risk for the development of schizophrenia, bind to each other under normal conditions in multiple regions of the brain, and that their connection was found in mice to be key to maintaining normal movement, memory function and anxiety regulation.
When that connection doesn’t happen as it should, they found, behavior can be negatively affected – in mice, disruption to the proteins’ ability to interact increased hyperactivity, reduced risk avoidance and impaired memory. Though delusions and hallucinations are hallmark symptoms of schizophrenia, the condition also encompasses additional symptoms, including movement and memory problems.
“These two proteins are seemingly unrelated, and our study has provided a link between them that wasn’t recognized before,” said lead author Chen Gu, associate professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology in The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
“There are more than 100 genes that have been identified as risk genes for schizophrenia, but we still don’t know the real mechanisms behind those risks,” Gu said. “We’re hopeful that getting a better understanding of this mechanism could help in the long run to find a new treatment that could benefit patients with schizophrenia.”
The study was published recently in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Previous post-mortem studies have identified risk genes for schizophrenia based on signs of protein dysfunction detected in brain tissue. Among them are the proteins in this study: MAP6, which has a role in supporting a neuron’s cytoskeleton or, more specifically, microtubules, and Kv3.1, which helps control the maximal frequency of electrical signaling by neurons.
Gu’s lab has studied Kv3.1 for many years, often working with genetically altered mice lacking its gene. As the team began exploring a connection between Kv3.1 and MAP6, first study author Di Ma, a graduate student in the lab, found that mice lacking the genes for both proteins experienced similar behavior changes.
“That’s how we started looking at their relationship in more detail,” Gu said.
In this study, Ma and her lab mates took a more nuanced look at how the proteins’ connection relates to behavior by disrupting their ability to bind to each other in specific brain regions in mice: the hippocampus, which governs learning and memory, and the nearby amygdala, where emotions are processed.
The researchers found that disruption to the proteins’ connection in the amygdala led to a reduction in risk avoidance – shown in mice as a lack of fear of height. Blocking the proteins’ attachment in the hippocampus resulted in hyperactivity and lower recognition of a familiar object.
Though some behavior changes in these experiments differed from the longer list of changes seen in mice completely lacking one or both genes, the finding provided important insights about where the proteins’ interactions, or lack thereof, have the strongest effect on behavior.
“Different physiological functions we are engaged in daily are governed by different brain regions,” Gu said. “That’s an advance provided by our study – because previously we only knew global knockout mice had these behavioral alterations, we didn’t really know what brain region was responsible for them.”
The next step in Gu’s lab will be exploring any links between social behavior in mice and these proteins’ functions in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region important to decision making and planning.
In a series of biochemistry and cell biology experiments, the researchers also determined how the proteins bind and how that connection affects their positioning inside neurons. Results showed MAP6 stabilizes the Kv3.1 channel in a specific type of interneurons, where it helps these cells keep brain signals at an even keel. A drop in the expression of MAP6, on the other hand, dramatically decreased the level of Kv3.1 in those interneurons.
The combined findings suggest that when the proteins don’t bind properly, there isn’t enough Kv3.1 available to maintain interneurons’ signal-control function, leading to an imbalance of neural inhibition and excitation in affected brain regions – and related negative behavioral symptoms. This type of interneurons, capable of generating nerve impulses in high frequencies, represent a key therapeutic target for schizophrenia.
“Our study further provides a link between the MAP6 dysfunction and the interneuron signal dysfunction, and we now know that there are two proteins that interact and that one could alter the other,” Gu said. “That opens up potential new directions for treatment strategies.”
Funding: This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Additional co-authors include Chao Sun, Rahul Manne, Tianqi Guo, Joshua Barry, Thomas Magliery and Houzhi Li of Ohio State and Christophe Bosc and Annie Andrieux of the Grenoble Institut Neurosciences in France.
About this schizophrenia research news
Author: Emily Caldwell
Source: Ohio State University
Contact: Emily Caldwell – Ohio State University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
“A cytoskeleton-membrane interaction conserved in fast-spiking neurons controls movement, emotion, and memory” by Chen Gu et al. Molecular Psychiatry
Abstract
A cytoskeleton-membrane interaction conserved in fast-spiking neurons controls movement, emotion, and memory
The pathogenesis of schizophrenia is believed to involve combined dysfunctions of many proteins including microtubule-associated protein 6 (MAP6) and Kv3.1 voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channel, but their relationship and functions in behavioral regulation are often not known.
Here we report that MAP6 stabilizes Kv3.1 channels in parvalbumin-positive (PV+ ) fast-spiking GABAergic interneurons, regulating behavior.
MAP6−/− and Kv3.1−/− mice display similar hyperactivity and avoidance reduction. Their proteins colocalize in PV+ interneurons and MAP6 deletion markedly reduces Kv3.1 protein level.
We further show that two microtubule-binding modules of MAP6 bind the Kv3.1 tetramerization domain with high affinity, maintaining the channel level in both neuronal soma and axons. MAP6 knockdown by AAV-shRNA in the amygdala or the hippocampus reduces avoidance or causes hyperactivity and recognition memory deficit, respectively, through elevating projection neuron activity.
Finally, knocking down Kv3.1 or disrupting the MAP6-Kv3.1 binding in these brain regions causes avoidance reduction and hyperactivity, consistent with the effects of MAP6 knockdown.
Thus, disrupting this conserved cytoskeleton-membrane interaction in fast-spiking neurons causes different degrees of functional vulnerability in various neural circuits.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
