Lipidomic and Metallomic Alteration of Caenorhabditis elegans after Acute and Chronic Manganese, Iron, and Zinc Exposure with a Link to Neurodegenerative Disorders

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) progresses with the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta region of the brain. The superior mechanisms and the cause of this specific localized neurodegeneration is currently unknown. However, experimental evidence indicates a link between PD progression and reactive oxygen species with imbalanced metal homeostasis. Wild-type Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to redox-active metals was used as the model organism to study cellular response to imbalanced metal homeostasis linked to neurodegenerative diseases. Using modern hyphenated techniques such as capillary electrophoresis coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, alterations in the lipidome and metallome were determined in vivo. In contrast to iron, most of the absorbed zinc and manganese were loosely bound. We observed changes in the phospholipid composition for acute iron and manganese exposures, as well as chronic zinc exposure. Furthermore, we focused on the mitochondrial membrane alteration due to its importance in neuronal function. However, significant changes in the inner mitochondrial membrane by determination of cardiolipin species could only be observed for acute iron exposure. These results indicate different intracellular sites of local ROS generation, depending on the redox active metal. Our study combines metallomic and lipidomic alterations as the cause and consequence to enlighten intracellular mechanisms in vivo, associated with PD progression. The mass spectrometry raw data have been deposited to the MassIVE database () with the identifier MSV000090796 and 10.25345/C51J97C8F.

New Pieces for an Old Puzzle: Approaching Parkinson’s Disease from Translatable Animal Models, Gut Microbiota Modulation, and Lipidomics

“…Acute exposure to iron and manganese and chronic exposure to zinc altered phospholipid composition, with an impact on the plasma membrane, changing also its fluidity and permeability; acute iron also significantly altered cardiolipins in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Thus, these authors showed lipidomic alterations as a consequence of altered metallostasis due to metal treatment [ 229 ].…”