Edwin W. McCleskey

Rap1 mediates sustained MAP kinase activation induced by nerve growth factor

Activation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (also known as extracellular-signal-regulated kinase, or ERK) by growth factors can trigger either cell growth or differentiation. The intracellular signals that couple growth factors to MAP kinase may determine the different effects of growth factors: for example, transient activation of MAP kinase by epidermal growth factor stimulates proliferation of PC12 cells, whereas they differentiate in response to nerve growth factor, which acts partly by inducing a sustained activation of MAP kinase. Here we show that activation of MAP kinase by nerve growth factor involves two distinct pathways: the initial activation of MAP kinase requires the small G protein Ras, but its activation is sustained by the small G protein Rap1. Rap1 is activated by CRK adaptor proteins and the guanine-nucleotide-exchange factor C3G, and forms a stable complex with B-Raf, an activator of MAP kinase. Rap1 is required for at least two indices of neuronal differentiation by nerve growth factor: electrical excitability and the induction of neuron-specific genes. We propose that the activation of Rap1 by C3G represents a common mechanism to induce sustained activation of the MAP kinase cascade in cells that express B-Raf.

Acid-sensing ion channel 3 matches the acid-gated current in cardiac ischemia-sensing neurons

Cardiac afferents are sensory neurons that mediate angina, pain that occurs when the heart receives insufficient blood supply for its metabolic demand (ischemia). These neurons display enormous acid-evoked depolarizing currents, and they fire action potentials in response to extracellular acidification that accompanies myocardial ischemia. Here we show that acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3), but no other known acid-sensing ion channel, reproduces the functional features of the channel that underlies the large acid-evoked current in cardiac afferents. ASIC3 and the native channel are both especially sensitive to pH, interact similarly with Ca(2+), and gate rapidly between closed, open, and desensitized states. Particularly important is the ability of ASIC3 and the native channel to open at pH 7, a value reached in the first few minutes of a heart attack. The steep activation curve suggests that the channel opens when four protons bind. We propose that ASIC3, a member of the degenerin channel (of Caenorhabditis elegans)/epithelial sodium channel family of ion channels, is the sensor of myocardial acidity that triggers cardiac pain, and that it might be a useful pharmaceutical target for treating angina.

Role of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase and Endocytosis in Nerve Growth Factor-Induced Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase Activation via Ras and Rap1

ABSTRACT Neurotrophins promote multiple actions on neuronal cells including cell survival and differentiation. The best-studied neurotrophin, nerve growth factor (NGF), is a major survival factor in sympathetic and sensory neurons and promotes differentiation in a well-studied model system, PC12 cells. To mediate these actions, NGF binds to the TrkA receptor to trigger intracellular signaling cascades. Two kinases whose activities mediate these processes include the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (or extracellular signal-regulated kinase [ERK]) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K). To examine potential interactions between the ERK and PI3-K pathways, we studied the requirement of PI3-K for NGF activation of the ERK signaling cascade in dorsal root ganglion cells and PC12 cells. We show that PI3-K is required for TrkA internalization and participates in NGF signaling to ERKs via distinct actions on the small G proteins Ras and Rap1. In PC12 cells, NGF activates Ras and Rap1 to elicit the rapid and sustained activation of ERKs respectively. We show here that Rap1 activation requires both TrkA internalization and PI3-K, whereas Ras activation requires neither TrkA internalization nor PI3-K. Both inhibitors of PI3-K and inhibitors of endocytosis prevent GTP loading of Rap1 and block sustained ERK activation by NGF. PI3-K and endocytosis may also regulate ERK signaling at a second site downstream of Ras, since both rapid ERK activation and the Ras-dependent activation of the MAP kinase kinase kinase B-Raf are blocked by inhibition of either PI3-K or endocytosis. The results of this study suggest that PI3-K may be required for the signals initiated by TrkA internalization and demonstrate that specific endocytic events may distinguish ERK signaling via Rap1 and Ras.

Acid-Evoked Currents in Cardiac Sensory Neurons A Possible Mediator of Myocardial Ischemic Sensation

Sensory neurons that innervate the heart sense ischemia and mediate angina. To use patch-clamp methods to study ion channels on these cells, we fluorescently labeled cardiac sensory neurons (CSNs) in rats so that they could later be identified in dissociated primary culture of either nodose or dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Currents evoked by a variety of different agonists imply the importance of lowered pH (</=7.0) in signaling ischemia. Acidic pH evoked extremely large depolarizing current in almost all cardiac afferent neurons from the DRG (CDRGNs). In contrast, only about half of the unlabeled DRG neurons responded to acid, and their current amplitudes were much less than that in CDRGNs. In all respects tested--kinetics, selectivity, and pharmacology--the acid-evoked current was similar to that of previously described native and cloned acid-sensing ion channels. Cardiac afferents from the nodose ganglia differed from CDRGNs in having smaller acid-evoked currents but clearly larger currents evoked by ATP. Serotonin, acetylcholine, bradykinin, and adenosine elicited currents in fewer CSNs than did ATP or lowered pH, and the currents were relatively small. Capsaicin, an activator of small nociceptive sensory neurons that innervate skin, evoked only small and rare currents in CDRGNs. The extremely large amplitude and prevalent expression of acid-evoked current in CSNs imply a critical role for acidity in sensation associated with myocardial ischemia.

Protons Open Acid-Sensing Ion Channels by Catalyzing Relief of Ca2+ Blockade

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) open when extracellular pH drops and they are enhanced by lactate, making them specialized for detecting lactic acidosis. Highly expressed on cardiac nociceptors and some other sensory neurons, ASICs may help trigger pain caused by tissue ischemia. We report that H(+) opens ASIC3 by speeding release of Ca(2+) from a high-affinity binding site (K(Ca) = 150 nM) on the extracellular side of the pore. The bound Ca(2+) blocks permeation and the channel conducts when multiple H(+) ions relieve this block. Activation through Ca(2+) explains sensitivity to lactate, which decreases extracellular [Ca(2+)], and it may prove relevant in CNS pathologies (stroke, seizure) that simultaneously drop pH and Ca(2+).

ASIC3, an acid-sensing ion channel, is expressed in metaboreceptive sensory neurons

BackgroundASIC3, the most sensitive of the acid-sensing ion channels, depolarizes certain rat sensory neurons when lactic acid appears in the extracellular medium. Two functions have been proposed for it: 1) ASIC3 might trigger ischemic pain in heart and muscle; 2) it might contribute to some forms of touch mechanosensation. Here, we used immunocytochemistry, retrograde labelling, and electrophysiology to ask whether the distribution of ASIC3 in rat sensory neurons is consistent with either of these hypotheses.ResultsLess than half (40%) of dorsal root ganglion sensory neurons react with anti-ASIC3, and the population is heterogeneous. They vary widely in cell diameter and express different growth factor receptors: 68% express TrkA, the receptor for nerve growth factor, and 25% express TrkC, the NT3 growth factor receptor. Consistent with a role in muscle nociception, small (<25 μm) sensory neurons that innervate muscle are more likely to express ASIC3 than those that innervate skin (51% of small muscle afferents vs. 28% of small skin afferents). Over 80% of ASIC3+ muscle afferents co-express CGRP (a vasodilatory peptide). Remarkably few (9%) ASIC3+ cells express P2X3 receptors (an ATP-gated ion channel), whereas 31% express TRPV1 (the noxious heat and capsaicin-activated ion channel also known as VR1). ASIC3+/CGRP+ sensory nerve endings were observed on muscle arterioles, the blood vessels that control vascular resistance; like the cell bodies, the endings are P2X3- and can be TRPV1+. The TrkC+/ASIC3+ cell bodies are uniformly large, possibly consistent with non-nociceptive mechanosensation. They are not proprioceptors because they fail two other tests: ASIC3+ cells do not express parvalbumin and they are absent from the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus.ConclusionOur data indicates that: 1) ASIC3 is expressed in a restricted population of nociceptors and probably in some non-nociceptors; 2) co-expression of ASIC3 and CGRP, and the absence of P2X3, are distinguishing properties of a class of sensory neurons, some of which innervate blood vessels. We suggest that these latter afferents may be muscle metaboreceptors, neurons that sense the metabolic state of muscle and can trigger pain when there is insufficient oxygen.

Sustained Currents Through ASIC3 Ion Channels at the Modest pH Changes That Occur During Myocardial Ischemia

Acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3) is highly expressed on sensory neurons that innervate heart and skeletal muscle and, therefore, is proposed to detect lactic acidosis and to transduce angina and muscle ischemic pain. A difficulty with this idea is that ASIC3 rapidly desensitizes. How can a desensitizing ion channel mediate a persisting sensation such as angina? Here, we show that rat ASIC3 produces a sustained current within the limited range of extracellular pH (7.3 to 6.7) that occurs during cardiac and skeletal muscle ischemia; experiments use patch clamp on transfected cell lines and on fluorescently tagged sensory neurons that innervate rat heart. No such sustained current occurs with ASIC1a (either as homomers or 1a/3 heteromers), whereas ASIC2a/3 heteromers give much larger currents than ASIC3 homomers. The sustained current persists even over tens of minutes because it is caused by a region of pH where there is overlap between inactivation and activation of the channel. Lactate, an anaerobic metabolite, allows the current to activate at slightly more basic pH. Surprisingly, amiloride, which blocks ASICs when they are activated at lower pH, increases ASIC3 current evoked at pH 7.0. Cardiac sensory neurons exhibit a small, perfectly sustained current when pH changes from 7.4 to 7.0. At least some of this current is carried by ASICs because the current is increased by both Zn2+, an ASIC modulator, and amiloride. We suggest that this sustained mode is the most relevant form of ASIC3 gating for triggering angina and other ischemic pain.

Selective opioid inhibition of small nociceptive neurons.

Opioid analgesia, the selective suppression of pain without effects on other sensations, also distinguishes between different types of pain: severe, persistent pain is potently inhibited by opioids, but they fail to conceal the sensation of a pinprick. The cellular basis for this specificity was analyzed by means of patch-clamp experiments performed on fluorescently labeled nociceptive neurons (nociceptors) that innervate rat tooth pulp. Activation of the μ opioid receptor inhibited calcium channels on almost all small nociceptors but had minimal effect on large nociceptors. Somatostatin had the opposite specificity, preferentially inhibiting calcium channels on the large cells. Because persistent pain is mediated by slow-conducting, small nociceptors, opioids are thus likely to inhibit neurotransmitter release only at those primary synapses specialized for persistent pain.

ATP and UTP excite sensory neurons and induce CREB phosphorylation through the metabotropic receptor, P2Y2.

Extracellular ATP rapidly excites nociceptive sensory neurons by opening ATP‐gated ion channels (P2X receptors). Here, we describe two actions of both ATP and UTP on rat sensory neurons that are relatively slow and sustained: phosphorylation of the transcription factor CREB and delayed action potential firing that persists for tens of seconds after removal of the ligand. The pharmacology of these responses indicates that they are mediated by the metabotropic receptor P2Y2, and not by P2X receptors. CREB phosphorylation occurred in a subset of small peripherin‐positive neurons likely to be unmyelinated nociceptors. In situ hybridization analysis revealed widespread expression of P2Y2 mRNA in sensory neurons. CREB phosphorylation is mediated by both action‐potential‐evoked calcium influx and calcium release from intracellular stores. These findings suggest that P2Y2 contributes to the transduction of ATP‐mediated sensory signalling, and may be involved in the activity‐dependent regulation of nociceptor phenotype.

Sensing Muscle Ischemia: Coincident Detection of Acid and ATP via Interplay of Two Ion Channels

Ischemic pain--examples include the chest pain of a heart attack and the leg pain of a 30 s sprint--occurs when muscle gets too little oxygen for its metabolic need. Lactic acid cannot act alone to trigger ischemic pain because the pH change is so small. Here, we show that another compound released from ischemic muscle, adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP), works together with acid by increasing the pH sensitivity of acid-sensing ion channel number 3 (ASIC3), the molecule used by sensory neurons to detect lactic acidosis. Our data argue that ATP acts by binding to P2X receptors that form a molecular complex with ASICs; the receptor on sensory neurons appears to be P2X5, an electrically quiet ion channel. Coincident detection of acid and ATP should confer sensory selectivity for ischemia over other conditions of acidosis.