Parkinson' disease (PD) is a most common and debilitating degenerative disease resulted from massive loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, which is characterized by severe motor symptoms of tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability. Protection of nigral dopamine neurons from progressive degenerative death and cell replacement of novel dopamine neurons are hopeful strategies against PD in humans. The reactive astrocytes or functional activation of astrocytes abundantly occurred in brain insults including trauma, ischemia, and 6-OHDA or MPTP-treated PD animal models. Although they were traditionally assumed to impede neuronal regeneration by forming glial scars, growing evidence has indicated that reactive astrocytes do offer crucial benefits in functional recovery of brain injuries. The reactive astrocytes can produce various neurotrophic factors for neuron survival, synthesize extracellular substrates for axonal outgrowth and synaptogenesis, act as scavengers for free radical and excess glutamate, and promote neurogenesis of neural progenitor cells in the adult brains. We thereafter hypothesize that reactive astrocytes may also play important roles in the protection of nigral dopamine neurons or transplanted dopamine cells through their neurotrophic functions and active interaction with dopamine neurons or neural progenitor cells. Future approaches deserve to target on neurotrophic functions of reactive astrocytes in the basal ganglia and interventions to facilitate survival and axonal regeneration of dopamine neurons or differentiation of dopamine progenitor cells. Novel pharmaceutical and cell replacement strategies will hopefully be developed by potential manipulation of reactive astrocytes in the basal ganglia in prevention and treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Neurokinin peptides neurokinin‐1 (NK1), neurokinin‐3 (NK3), and related receptors are abundantly distributed in the substantia nigra (SN) and evidenced by their possible roles in the Parkinson’s disease. Differential intervention roles of NK3 on kainic acid (KA)‐induced neuronal injury in the SN of mice were thus in vitro and in vivo studied by Fluoro‐Jade C (FJC) staining, immunohistochemistry to tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) or phospho‐NMDA receptor, and 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. It revealed that (i) in contrast to protective effect of NK1 agonist septide that reduced FJC‐positive degenerative neurons and lesion volume insulted by KA, NK3 agonist senktide significantly increased FJC‐positive ones and lesion volume, and this effect was sufficiently reversed by NK3 antagonist SB218795; (ii) similarly, senktide reduced TH‐positive neurons and this effect was antagonized by SB218795, but septide increased TH‐positive ones; (iii) mechanistic observation showed differential influences of NK1 and NK3 agonists on phosphorylated‐NMDA receptor subunit 1 (phospho‐NMDAR1) and glial fibrillary acidic protein‐expressing astrocytes, i.e. senktide enhanced of NMDA receptor phosphorylation and astrocyte activity, while septide reduced NMDA receptor phosphorylation and astrocytic response; (iv) cell culture further confirmed the exacerbating effect of NK3 agonist on KA‐induced lesion of nigral cells or dopaminergic neurons, in which administration of senktide alone did not show significant cell toxicity. This study presents new evidence that neurokinin NK3 instead of NK1 synergistically exacerbate excitotoxic neuronal degeneration in the SN in a dose‐dependent manner and possibly through modulation of NMDA receptor phosphorylation and astrocyte activity, suggesting their potential significance in novel pharmaceutical therapy against Parkinson’s disease.

Here we report a previously unknown self repair mechanism during extremely early stages of rat Parkinsonism. Two important cell survival signaling cascades, Phosphatidylinositol-3 kinases (PI3K)/Akt pathway and extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase (ERK/MAPK) pathway, could be responsible for this potential endogenous rescue system. In the 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rat, the phosphorylated p44/42 MAPK and its downstream target, the phosphorylated Bad at Ser 112, were up-regulated at post-lesion day 3 and lasted for a couple of weeks. Although the change in the phosphorylated Akt kinase was negligible throughout the studied period, its downstream target, the phosphorylated Bad at 136, was increased from post-lesion day 3 to post-lesion day 14. In the mean time, nestin-positive reactive astrocytes with low levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) appeared at post-lesion day 3 in 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rat. BDNF was expressed in both striatum and substantia nigra whereas GDNF was displayed in striatum only. At post-lesion day 14, nestin, BDNF and GDNF expressions were diminished. These neurotrophic factors were believed to initiate the above anti-apoptotic signal transduction cascades as we could see that their expression patterns were similar. The data strongly suggest that there is an endogenous repair effort by evoking the cell survival signaling and possibly via the releases of BDNF and GDNF from nestin-immunoreactive reactive astrocytes. ERK/MAPK pathway was proposed to be the key endogenous neuroprotective mechanisms, particularly in early stages of rat Parkinsonism. However, the self repair effort is only functional within an extremely short time window immediately after onset.

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