1. Hypothalamic pregnenolone mediates recognition memory in the context of metabolic disorders
- Author
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Ramírez, Sara, Haddad-Tóvolli, Roberta, Radosevic, Marija, Toledo, Miriam, Pané, Adriana, Alcolea, Daniel, Ribas, Vicent, Milà-Guasch, Maria, Pozo, Macarena, Obri, Arnaud, Eyre, Elena, Gómez-Valadés, Alicia G., Chivite, Iñigo, Van Eeckhout, Tomas, Zalachoras, Ioannis, Altirriba, Jordi, Bauder, Corinna, Imbernón, Mónica, Garrabou, Gloria, Garcia-Ruiz, Carmen, Nogueiras, Rubén, Soto, David, Gasull, Xavier, Sandi, Carmen, Brüning, Jens C., Fortea, Juan, Jiménez, Amanda, Fernández-Checa, José C., Claret, Marc, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Swiss National Science Foundation, European Research Council, European Commission, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Generalitat de Catalunya, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), National Institutes of Health (US), Fundació La Marató de TV3, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Hepáticas y Digestivas (España), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (US), European Cooperation in Science and Technology, Fundación BBVA, Fundación 'la Caixa', and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona
- Subjects
proopiomelanocortin ,cognition ,metabolic disorder ,obesity ,Pro-Opiomelanocortin ,Physiology ,Trastorns del metabolisme ,animal cell ,obesogenic diet ,Recognition memory ,Mice ,cognitive defect ,energy metabolism ,animal ,hypothalamus ,long term potentiation ,mental performance ,cell population ,pregnenolone ,clinical article ,diabetes ,Hipotàlem ,C57BL mouse ,non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus ,adult ,metabolically unhealthy obese ,Diabetes ,digestive, oral, and skin physiology ,Trastorns de la memòria ,Mitochondria ,mitochondria ,female ,Disorders of metabolism ,Pregnenolone ,Memory disorders ,neurosteroid ,hormone synthesis ,Cognitive function ,nerve cell ,recognition ,neurosteroids ,Neurosteroids ,steroidogenic acute regulatory protein ,hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists ,insulin ,endocrine system ,Stard1 ,ketamine ,animal experiment ,Hypothalamus ,recognition memory ,xylazine ,Article ,cerebrospinal fluid ,animal tissue ,in vivo study ,cholesterol side chain cleavage ,male ,Metabolic Diseases ,autocrine signaling ,Animals ,Humans ,controlled study ,human ,Obesity ,insulin signaling ,Molecular Biology ,cerebrospinal fluid analysis ,mouse ,cognitive function ,nonhuman ,POMC neurons ,gene deletion ,animal model ,Cell Biology ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ,nervous system ,cerebrospinal fluid level ,metabolism - Abstract
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are associated with cognitive dysfunction. Because the hypothalamus is implicated in energy balance control and memory disorders, we hypothesized that specific neurons in this brain region are at the interface of metabolism and cognition. Acute obesogenic diet administration in mice impaired recognition memory due to defective production of the neurosteroid precursor pregnenolone in the hypothalamus. Genetic interference with pregnenolone synthesis by Star deletion in hypothalamic POMC, but not AgRP neurons, deteriorated recognition memory independently of metabolic disturbances. Our data suggest that pregnenolone’s effects on cognitive function were mediated via an autocrine mechanism on POMC neurons, influencing hippocampal long-term potentiation. The relevance of central pregnenolone on cognition was also confirmed in metabolically unhealthy patients with obesity. Our data reveal an unsuspected role for POMC neuron-derived neurosteroids in cognition. These results provide the basis for a framework to investigate new facets of POMC neuron biology with implications for cognitive disorders., This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (no.176206; NCCR Synapsy grant no.185897) to C.S.; the European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant SYNEME to J.C.B.; Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)—Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (PI17/00296), RETICs Oftared (RD16/0008/0014), and Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR737) to X.G.; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (BFU2017-83317-P) to D.S.; Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Maria de Maeztu (MDM-2017-0729) to Institut de Neurociencies, Universitat de Barcelona; ISCIII-FEDER (PI14/01126, PI17/01019), the National Institutes of Health (NIA grants 1R01AG056850-01A1, R21AG056974, and R01AG061566), Fundació La Marató de TV3 (20141210), and Generalitat de Catalunya (SLT006/17/00119) to J.F.; ISCIII-FEDER (PI17/00279 and PI20/0042), Fundació La Marató de TV3 (201614.31), and Generalitat de Catalunya (SLT008/18/00127) to A.J.; Plan Nacional de I+D funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and FEDER (PID2019-111669RB-I00 and PID2020-115055RB-I00), CIBEREHD, the center grant P50AA011999 Southern California Research Center for ALPD and Cirrhosis funded by NIAAA/NIH, Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR-2017-1112), the European Cooperation in Science & Technology (COST) ACTION CA17112, FUNDACIÓN BBVA (“ER stress-mitochondrial cholesterol axis in obesity-associated insulin resistance and comorbidities”), and Red Nacional 2018-102799-T de Enfermedades Metabólicas y Cáncer and Fundació La Marató de TV3 (201916/31) to J.C.F.-C.; and ERC consolidator grant MITOSENSING (725004), ISCIII-FEDER (PI16/00963), “la Caixa” Foundation (ID100010434) under agreement LCF/PR/HR19/52160016, and CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya to M.C. D.A. is supported by ISCIII (INT19/00016) and Generalitat de Catalunya PERIS program (SLT006/17/125), A.P. is supported by Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (“Ajut Josep Font”), A.O. is supported by a Miguel Servet contract (CP19/00083) from ISCIII-FEDER, and R.H.-T. is supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF) and NEUROPREG (891247). S.R. is a recipient of Juan de la Cierva Formación (FJCI-2016-28911) and Incorporación (IJC2018-037341-I) programs from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. This work was carried out in part at Esther Koplowitz Centre.
- Published
- 2022