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Neuronal Cells Protected by Gleevec from Neurotoxic Prp106-126-Induced Death

Yaoqian Pan, Mei Yin, Hairong Tang, Jihong Wang, Xuannian Wang, Xingyou Liu and Bo Pan

Prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders and have great danger to animals and humans. But to now, no drugs and measures are used to treat and prevent this disease. Neurodegeneration can be prevented by Gleevec that regulates c-Abl tyrosine kinases. However, the protective effect of Gleevec against prion disease remains unknown. In the present study, the effect of Gleevec against prion neurotoxic-induced neuronal death was investigated by ThT fluorometric assay, CCK8 assay, TUNEL, TEM, Immunofluorescence staining and western blot. Results showed that Gleevec could deaden PrP106-126-mediated neurotoxicity in Neuro2A cells, rescue neurons from PrP106-126-induced apoptosis and abrogate PrP106-126- induced mitochondrial damage. This study is the first to demonstrate the protective effect of Gleevec against prion-mediated neurotoxicity. Our results suggested that Gleevec treatment may be a novel therapeutic strategy to treat prion-mediated neurotoxicity.