Philippine Camilla Geiszler1,2,
1Division of Academic Radiology, School
of Clinical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire,
United Kingdom; 2Division of Molecular and Cellular Sciences,
School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire,
United Kingdom; 3School of Biomedical Sciences, University of
Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghanshire, United Kingdom
This
NMR spectroscopy-based metabolic profiling pilot study was conducted to
examine the ability to characterise early effects of neurodegeneration in
ubiquitin proteasome-depleted mice. In
specific brain areas, these animals develop pyknotic nuclei preceding Lewy
body-like neuronal inclusions and extensive neuronal loss. Cortices and
hippocampi were extracted at the pyknotic nuclei stage. Liquid-state spectra,
recorded at 400MHz, showed significant metabolic alterations
(N-acetylaspartate, taurine, choline) in both areas indicative of substantial
neuronal cell remodelling before neuronal death. The investigation
demonstrated clearly the ability of NMR-based metabolic profiling techniques
to aid in the characterisation of early neurodegeneration.