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Research Paper|Volume 10, Issue 6|pp 1281—1293

CircSNCA downregulation by pramipexole treatment mediates cell apoptosis and autophagy in Parkinson’s disease by targeting miR-7

Qiuling Sang1, Xiaoyang Liu1, Libo Wang1, Ling Qi2, Wenping Sun1, Weiyao Wang2, Yajuan Sun1, Haina Zhang3
  • 1Department of Neurology, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130033, China
  • 2Department of Pathophysiology, Jilin Medical University, Jilin, Jilin 132013, China
  • 3Department of Rehabilitation, the Second Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130041, China

* * Equal contribution

Received: April 21, 2018Accepted: May 30, 2018Published: June 28, 2018
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101466

Copyright: © 2018 Sang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

We aimed to explore the mechanism of pramipexole (PPX) actions in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Genes related to PD and PPX were screened through bioinformatics retrieval. The PD model was constructed by applying 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MMP+). The RNA expression levels of circSNCA, SNCA, apoptosis-related genes (BCL2, CASP3, BAX, PTEN and P53) and miR-7 were detected by qRT-PCR. Protein expression was determined by western blot. The interactions between circSNCA-miR-7-SNCA were verified by dual luciferase assay and immunofluorescence localization. Cell viability was determined by MTT assay. SNCA and circSNCA expression levels in PD were downregulated after PPX treatment, consistent with the levels of pro-apoptotic genes. CircSNCA increased SNCA expression by downregulating miR-7 in PD as a competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA). Lower circSNCA expression was associated with the reduced expression of pro-apoptotic (CASP3, BAX, PTEN and P53) proteins. CircSNCA downregulation could decrease apoptosis and induce autophagy in PD. In conclusion, the downregulation of circSNCA by PPX treatment reduced cell apoptosis and promoted cell autophagy in PD via a mechanism that served as a miR-7 sponge to upregulate SNCA.