Spinal inhibitory neurons degenerate before motor neurons and excitatory neurons in a mouse model of ALS

• Published in: Science advances Vol. 10; no. 22; p. eadk3229
• Main Authors: Montañana-Rosell, Roser, Selvan, Raghavendra, Hernández-Varas, Pablo, Kaminski, Jan M, Sidhu, Simrandeep Kaur, Ahlmark, Dana B, Kiehn, Ole, Allodi, Ilary
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 31.05.2024
• Subjects: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - genetics; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - metabolism; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - pathology; Animals; Disease Models, Animal; Disease Progression; Humans; Interneurons - metabolism; Interneurons - pathology; Mice; Mice, Transgenic; Motor Neurons - metabolism; Motor Neurons - pathology; Nerve Degeneration - pathology; Spinal Cord - metabolism; Spinal Cord - pathology; Superoxide Dismutase-1 - genetics; Superoxide Dismutase-1 - metabolism
• ISSN: 2375-2548; 2375-2548
• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk3229

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by the progressive loss of somatic motor neurons. A major focus has been directed to motor neuron intrinsic properties as a cause for degeneration, while less attention has been given to the contribution of spinal interneurons. In the present work, we applied multiplexing detection of transcripts and machine learning-based image analysis to investigate the fate of multiple spinal interneuron populations during ALS progression in the SOD1 mouse model. The analysis showed that spinal inhibitory interneurons are affected early in the disease, before motor neuron death, and are characterized by a slow progressive degeneration, while excitatory interneurons are affected later with a steep progression. Moreover, we report differential vulnerability within inhibitory and excitatory subpopulations. Our study reveals a strong interneuron involvement in ALS development with interneuron specific degeneration. These observations point to differential involvement of diverse spinal neuronal circuits that eventually may be determining motor neuron degeneration.