Enhanced activity of glycolytic enzymes in Drosophila and human cell models of Parkinson's disease based on DJ-1 deficiency

Parkinsons disease (PD) is a neurodenerative debilitating disorder characterized by progressive disturbances in motor, autonomic and psychiatric functions. The pathological hallmark of PD is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, which causes striatal dopamine deficiency. Although most PD cases are sporadic (iPD), approximately 5-10% of all patients suffer from monogenic PD forms caused by highly penetrant rare mutations segregating with the disease in families (fPD). One of the genes linked to monogenic PD is DJ-1. Mutations in DJ-1 cause autosomal recessive early-onset forms of fPD; however, it has been shown that an over-oxidized and inactive form of the DJ-1 protein is found in the brains of iPD individuals. Valuable insights into potential PD pathogenic mechanisms involving DJ-1 have been obtained from studies in cell and animal PD models based on DJ-1 deficiency such as Drosophila. Flies mutant for the DJ-1{beta} gene, the Drosophila ortholog of human DJ-1, exhibited disease-related phenotypes such as motor defects, increased reactive oxygen species production and high levels of protein carbonylation. In the present study, we show that loss of DJ-1{beta} function significantly increased the activities of several regulatory glycolytic enzymes. Similar results were obtained in DJ-1-deficient SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, thus suggesting that loss of DJ-1 function in both PD models produces an enhancement of glycolysis. Our results also show that FDA-approved compounds such as meclizine and dimethyl fumarate, which have different clinical applications, are able to attenuate PD-related phenotypes in both models. Moreover, we found that they could exert their beneficial effect by increasing glycolysis through the activation of key glycolytic enzymes. Taken together, these results are consistent with the idea that increasing glycolysis could be a potential disease-modifying strategy for PD, as recently suggested. Besides, they also support further evaluation and potential repurposing of meclizine and dimethyl fumarate as modulators of energy metabolism for neuroprotection in PD.