2.1. Effect of G6PDi-1 on consumption of glucose and oxygen in hippocampal slices
PPP is an alternative glycolytic pathway for glucose metabolism (Dienel, 2019). To assess the extent of glucose metabolism modulation by PPP inhibition, we measured glucose and oxygen consumption in hippocampal slices when the PPP was suppressed ed by G6PDi-1, an inhibitor of the G6PD enzyme (
Figure 1).
The glucose and oxygen changes were measured simultaneously by glucose enzymatic microelectrodes and Clark oxygen microelectrode with in conjunction LFP registration. The scheme of electrode's allocation in the slice is shown in
Figure 2a. The analysis carried out on 7 acute hippocampal slices showed that immediately after the installation of the glucose sensor, the baseline glucose level in different slices varied from 1.76 to 2.74 mM. The 30-second stimulation (200 ms pulses at 10 Hz) of Shaffer collaterals caused remarkable consumption of glucose ranging from 0.1 to 0.94 mM in different slices.
The following concentrations of G6PDi-1 were tested to determine glucose consumption: 50 nM, 500 nM, 2.5 μM, 5 μM. As the concentration increased, glucose uptake due to synaptic stimulation progressively decreased. The 2.5 μM concentration was found to be saturating (results not shown) and was used in the following experiments on hippocampal slices.
The traces shown in
Figure 2b illustrate the glucose changes in control condition, during the application of 2.5 μM G6PDi-1 and after washing. The stimulation in control condition (black) leads to 0.62 mM consumption of glucose, during the application of G6PDi-1 (orange) the consumption of glucose decreased to 0.5 mM and after washing (gray) the amplitude of consumption elevated to 0.58 mM (
Figure 2b,c).
The application of G6PDi-1, 2.5 μM did not significantly change the rate of glucose consumption and its recovery kinetics. To evaluate more accurately the glucose consumption, we analyzed the integral area of changes in the glucose level in the slice from the moment of the onset of synaptic stimulation (30 sec) to the moment, when the glucose level was completely recovered (250 sec). The relative glucose consumption at each stimulation was calculated relative to the last stimulation in control.
G6PDi-1 caused a slow developing decrease in synaptically induced glucose consumption. After 8-10 mins of the inhibitor addition, glucose consumption decreased by 9.4±4.5%, while its presence during 15-20 mins resulted in decrease by about 20%. As illustrate
Figure 2d, average decreasing was to 79.8±4.0% compared to control. Washing was accompanied by an increase in glucose consumption to 92.9±7.3% (
Figure 2d, p < 0.05, n=6), which indicates the reversibility of the inhibitory effect of the compound.
To clarify whether G6PDi-1 affects the properties of synaptic transmission, we analysed the electrophysiological characteristics of neuronal population activity following the G6PDi-1 application. Electrical signals (the presynaptic volley, postsynaptic response and spikes) were recorded using glass electrodes placed in
stratum oriens CA1 zone of hippocampus (
Figure 2a). During the G6PDi-1 application and after washing the presynaptic volley of LFP component did not change compared to control indicating that a similar number of nerve fibers were activated (
Figure 3a).
An example of a train of electrical signals during stimulation (30 s, 10 Hz) in the control and after the addition of G6PDi-1 with insetions of single responses, illustrates absence of any modulation (
Figure 3b). To further validate these results, we performed an analysis of the LFP integrals, using the procedure described in detail previously [
22]. The computer program separated each LFP, shifted the baseline to 0, and selected the region of integration. Population spikes were inverted and then the integral of the whole trace was calculated. On average, the mean population spikes (PS) integral of trains didn’t change, upon application of G6PDi-1 become 99.3±1.9% if compare with control. The summarized data from 6 slices demonstrate that G6PDi-1 has not effect on the electrical activity on hippocampal slices (n=6,
Figure 3c). Furthermore, G6PDi-1 did not change the amplitude or kinetics of synaptically induced responses, indicating an absence of effect on electrical activity.
These results strongly demonstrate that the decrease in glucose uptake induced by G6PDi-1 is not associated with a reduction in the efficiency of synaptic stimulation of Shaffer collaterals.
Figure 3.
G6PDi-1 does not affect on electrophysiological characteristics of neuronal population activity. (a) Sample local field potential (LFP) traces from a single experiment in control (black line), during the application of 2.5 µM G6PDi-1 (orange line) and after wash (gray). (b) The superimposed LFPs during the stimulation train (30 s, 10 Hz), individual events are shown in the insets below. (c) Average population spike (PS) integral values from 6 slices (n=6, age 2-3 Mo). The black line illustrates the mean, whiskers – SE.
Figure 3.
G6PDi-1 does not affect on electrophysiological characteristics of neuronal population activity. (a) Sample local field potential (LFP) traces from a single experiment in control (black line), during the application of 2.5 µM G6PDi-1 (orange line) and after wash (gray). (b) The superimposed LFPs during the stimulation train (30 s, 10 Hz), individual events are shown in the insets below. (c) Average population spike (PS) integral values from 6 slices (n=6, age 2-3 Mo). The black line illustrates the mean, whiskers – SE.
We then analyzed the oxygen consumption induced by synaptic stimulation upon application of G6PD inhibitor. The baseline oxygen level in the control was 16.3% and synaptic stimulation (10 Hz, 30 s) caused remarkable decrease of its level to 2.2% (
Figure 4a). The decrease was reversible, after 200 second oxygen returned to its original level. Application of G6PDi-1 did not have a pronounced effect on the amplitude and kinetics of oxygen consumption.
Figure 4b summaries relative changes of oxygen transients induced by synaptic stimulation in control and during the G6PDi-1 application. In the presence of G6PDi-1 (2.5 µM), the average oxygen consumption integrals and oxygen transient amplitude were, respectively, 112.0±4.5% (not significant, n=7) and 106±2.7% (not significant, n=7) compared to the control.
Thus, inhibitor G6PDi-1 caused small and reversible decrease in glucose consumption, whereas oxygen consumption tended to increase.
2.2. Effect G6PDi-1 on basic and synaptically induced changes of intracellular ROS levels
The pentose phosphate pathway is a metabolic pathway in which glucose-6-phosphate is oxidized to generate pentose sugars, as well as reducing equivalents in the form of NADPH [
23]. The PPP produces the reduced form of NADPH, which serves as an energy source for intracellular antioxidant systems, in particular the glutathione and thioredoxin systems. We therefore analyzed intracellular ROS production upon inhibition of the pentose phosphate pathway using the cell-permeable dye CellROX (see Methods).
Fluorescence changes from a single slice under the G6PDi-1 application compared with control are shown in
Figure 5a and changes in 6 slices are taken into account in
Figure 5b (n=6, p < 0.05). The analysis showed that inhibition of PPP by G6PDi-1 causes an increase in the basal level of ROS in the cytoplasm: after addition of G6PDi-1 (2.5 μM), fluorescence increased slowly and reached a maximum quasi-steady-state level after approximately 10 min. In the slice shown in
Figure 5a, fluorescence increased by ≈0.3%. Across slices, the G6PDi-1-induced increase in basal levels in hippocampal CA1 cells averaged 0.6 ± 0.17% (n = 6,
Figure 5b).
To elucidate the effect of PPP inhibition on synaptically induced changes in ROS, we used stimulation of Schaffer collaterals under control conditions and then in the presence of G6PDi-1. The increase in fluorescence was calculated as ΔF/F0, where ΔF is the change in fluorescence in the hippocampus, F0 is the fluorescence in the cortical area, since synaptic stimulation did not cause changes in fluorescence in this region.
Synaptic stimulation of Shaffer collaterals (10 Hz, 30 sec) caused an increase of fluorescence (ΔF/F) under control conditions as well as in the presence G6PDi-1, reflecting an increase of intracellular ROS. The effect was reversible and fluorescence returned to the initial level approximately 30-40 seconds after the end of stimulation. (
Figure 5c).
Importantly, addition of 2.5 µM G6PDi-1 had no apparent effect on either the amplitude or kinetics of synaptically induced fluorescence changes (
Figure 5c orange line). The change in fluorescence to stimulation was completely blocked in the presence of 1 µM TTX, indicating a synaptic nature of the change in fluorescence to stimulation (data not shown).
On 8 slices, the relative amplitude of fluorescence changes under the action of the G6PD inhibitor varied compared to the control from 75.3% to 133.2% with mean value of 104.8±6.2% (n=8,
Figure 5d), indicating a minor effect of G6PD-1, on the synaptically induced increase in intracellular ROS.
Figure 5.
Action of G6PDi-1 on the intracellular ROS. (a) Base fluorescence changes from separate slices following the G6PDi-1 (2.5 μM) application, that is highlighted by orange line. (b) Summary of G6PDi-1 action on the base level of intracellular ROS (n=6, age mice 20-25 days of postnatal development – P20-25). (c) Accumulated signals of 2 traces of fluorescence changes during synaptic stimulation (10 Hz, 30 s) in control (black), during the 2.5 μM G6PDi-1 application (orange). The duration of stimulation is indicated by frame. (d) Summary of intracellular ROS changes under the synaptic stimulation in control (black), and during the G6PDi-1 application (orange) (n=8, P20-25).
Figure 5.
Action of G6PDi-1 on the intracellular ROS. (a) Base fluorescence changes from separate slices following the G6PDi-1 (2.5 μM) application, that is highlighted by orange line. (b) Summary of G6PDi-1 action on the base level of intracellular ROS (n=6, age mice 20-25 days of postnatal development – P20-25). (c) Accumulated signals of 2 traces of fluorescence changes during synaptic stimulation (10 Hz, 30 s) in control (black), during the 2.5 μM G6PDi-1 application (orange). The duration of stimulation is indicated by frame. (d) Summary of intracellular ROS changes under the synaptic stimulation in control (black), and during the G6PDi-1 application (orange) (n=8, P20-25).
2.3. Analysis of the G6PDi-1 action on the production of hydrogen peroxide and seizure-like phenomena in the 4AP model of epilepsy
Previous studies demonstrated that spontaneous seizures were preceded by a rapid, high-amplitude release of hydrogen peroxide (H
2O
2) [
19,
24]. Notably, inhibiting NADPH oxidase, an enzyme responsible for reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, has been shown to eliminate the rapid release of H
2O
2 and prevent the induction of seizures [
19].
In this study, we sought to assess the effect of PPP inhibition, specifically the enzyme G6PD, to H
2O
2 production during epileptiform activity, as well as to the frequency of spontaneous seizures. For this propose we applied the specific inhibitor of G6PD (G6PDi-1, 2.5µM) on acute brain slices generating SLEs induced by 4AP administration [
25,
26].
Application of 4AP (50 μM) resulted in hippocampal network hyperexcitability manifested as interictal activity and seizure like-events (SLEs) (
Figure 6a). The first SLEs became apparent 15-23 min (19.1±1.5 min, n=4) after onset of perfusion of the 4AP containing ACSF. The SLEs recorded in the
stratum oriens of CA1 hippocampal zone lasted between 40 and 78 s (60.7±3.8 s, n=15) and were characterized by negative DC-shift of the local field potential (mean amplitude 2.8±0.2 mV, n=15). Simultaneous monitoring of local field potentials and extracellular H
2O
2 revealed that all spontaneous seizures were associated with an especially high and fast release of H
2O
2 both in control (4AP alone) and following the G6PDi-1 application (
Figure 6a).
Special attention is given to the analysis of spontaneous SLEs frequency. We observed an increase in seizure occurrence on two slices during both the application of G6PDi-1 (from 3 to 4 and from 4 to 6 SLEs per hours) and the washing phase (
Figure 6b). In contrast, other two slices exhibited a tendency toward a decrease (from 6 to 5 and from 5 to 4 SLEs per hour) in seizure frequency (
Figure 6c). The difference in the effect direction may due to the difference in hippocampal region where brain slice came from. Indeed, when cutting the sagittal slices, we don’t control are they from dorsal or ventral hippocampus (see Discussion).
We also monitored the H
2O
2 production during spontaneous seizure-like events (SLEs), observing variations in peak amplitude ranging from 2 to 8 μM across different slices. The changes in peak amplitude of H
2O
2 production during the application of G6PDi-1 and after washing, corresponding to the slices depicted in
Figure 6b,c, are visually represented in
Figure 6d,e, respectively. Importantly, there was a tendency towards a gradual reduction in the peak amplitude of hydrogen peroxide production upon the addition of G6PDi-1 and after the washing phase, as depicted in
Figure 6d,e. This pattern was consistently observed in other slices as well. On average, the relative peak amplitude of H
2O
2 release during spontaneous seizure-like events (SLEs) was 94.9±2.8% upon the application of G6PDi-1 (Median difference -5.05% [CI -15.3%, 7.69%]), and during washing, it was 93.4±4.9% (Median difference -10.5% [CI -25.1%, 4.9%]), compared to the control in the 4AP model of epilepsy (
Figure 6f). Thus, the PPP inhibition reduced the release of H
2O
2 however the size of effect is too small to conclude its statistical significance.
We also analyzed the release of H2O2 associated with interictal-like events (IIEs). Interestingly, in the control condition (4AP alone), the amplitudes of H2O2 transients generated during IIEs were significantly lower than in the case of SLEs (Median difference -2.98μM [CI -3.58μM, -1.49 μM]), while during GP6H inhibition, these differences almost disappeared (Median difference -0.891 μM [CI -1.92 μM, -0.22 μM]). Additionally, the frequency of IIEs accompanied by H2O2 release increased in the presence of the inhibitor (11 vs 9 IIEs per hour), however, the amplitude of release decreased (Median difference -0.205 μM [CI -1.85 μM, 0.589 μM]). These observations may suggest two opposing processes: facilitation of H2O2 release due to the weakening glutathione-dependent antioxidant defense and a decrease in NOX-mediated H2O2 production. Indeed, both processes require NADPH, which production is ensured by the PPP.