Optogenetic stimulation of cortico-subthalamic projections is sufficient to ameliorate bradykinesia in 6-ohda lesioned mice

• Published in: Neurobiology of disease Vol. 95; pp. 225 - 237
• Main Authors: Sanders, Teresa H, Jaeger, Dieter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.11.2016; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; DBS; Deep brain stimulation; Deep Brain Stimulation - methods; Disease Models, Animal; Humans; Hypokinesia - drug therapy; Local field potential; Male; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Motor cortex; Motor Cortex - drug effects; Motor Cortex - pathology; Movement - drug effects; Movement - physiology; Movement analysis; Neurology; Neurons - drug effects; Neurons - pathology; Optogenetics; Optogenetics - methods; Oxidopamine - pharmacology; PAC; Parkinson Disease - pathology; Parkinson's disease; Phase-amplitude coupling; Subthalamic nucleus; Subthalamic Nucleus - drug effects; Subthalamic Nucleus - pathology; Deep b rain s timulation; PAC; DBS; P hase-amplitude coupling; L ocal field potential; O ptogenetics; M ovement analysis; S ubthalamic nucleus; Parkinson ' s disease; M otor cortex; Local field potential; Phase-amplitude coupling; Parkinson's disease; Deep brain stimulation; Motor cortex; Movement analysis; Subthalamic nucleus; Optogenetics
• ISSN: 0969-9961; 1095-953X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2016.07.021

Abstract Electrical deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is effective for ameliorating the motor symptoms of Parkinson ' s disease (PD) including bradykinesia. The STN receives its main excitatory input from cortex; however, the contribution of cortico-subthalamic projection neurons to the effects of DBS remains unclear. To isolate the consequences of stimulating layer 5 primary motor cortex (M1) projections to the STN, we used a dual virus transfection technique to selectively express opsins in these neurons in mice made parkinsonian by unilateral nigrostriatal 6-OHDA lesioning. AAVs containing WGA-Cre constructs were injected in the STN to retrogradely place Cre in STN afferents, while AAVs containing Cre-dependent ultrafast hChR2(E123T/T159C)-EYFP opsin constructs were injected in M1 layer 5, producing specific opsin expression in M1-STN projections. Under unstimulated conditions, lesioned mice showed bradykinesia and hypokinesia (decreased movement), along with electrophysiological changes similar to those observed in PD patients. Specifically, low frequency power (theta, alpha, low beta) was increased and gamma power was decreased, while M1/STN coherence and STN phase-amplitude-coupling (PAC) were increased. Optogenetic stimulation (100 – 130 Hz) of STN afferents in these mice ameliorated bradykinesia and hypokinesia and brought the neural dynamics closer to the non-parkinsonian state by reducing theta and alpha and increasing gamma power in M1, decreasing STN PAC, and reducing theta band coherence. Histological examination of the EYFP expression revealed that, in addition to orthodromic and antidromic effects, stimulation of cortico-subthalamic neurons may cause wide-spread increased glutamatergic activity due to collaterals that project to areas of the thalamus and other brain regions.