Quantitative Immunofluorescence Mapping of HSP70’s Neuroprotective Effects in FUS-ALS Mouse Models

Gennadii A. Piavchenko, Ksenia S. Pokidova, Egor A. Kuzmin, Artem A. Venediktov, Ilya Y. Izmailov, Igor V. Meglinski, Sergey L. Kuznetsov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, often linked to mutations in the FUS gene, leading to toxic protein aggregates. This study investigates the role of HSP70, a molecular chaperone, in mitigating neurodegeneration in FUS-ALS mouse models. Using quantitative immunofluorescence microscopy, we mapped cellular changes in the primary motor cortex of double transgenic FUS/HSP70 mice and compared them to single FUS-transgenic controls. Our results reveal that double transgenic mice exhibit significantly reduced neuronal damage and increased levels of mature neuronal (NeuN) and microglial (Iba1) markers, indicating a protective effect of HSP70. Intracellular HSP70 expression proved more effective than extracellular release, suggesting that targeted HSP70 delivery to neurons may offer a promising therapeutic avenue for ALS. This study underscores the potential of quantitative immunofluorescence for mapping neuroprotective pathways and highlights HSP70’s impact on mitigating FUS-related pathology in ALS.
Original languageEnglish
Article number11614
Number of pages14
JournalApplied Sciences
Volume14
Issue number24
Early online date12 Dec 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • heat shock proteins
  • HSP70
  • HSPA1A
  • neurodegeneration
  • primary motor cortex
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  • ALS
  • fused in sarcoma
  • FUS
  • transgenic animals
  • immunofluorescence
  • microscopy

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