Title
Multiple Pathways Involved in Palmitic Acid-Induced Toxicity: A System Biology Approach
Date Issued
31 January 2020
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Osorio D.
Pinzón A.
Martín-Jiménez C.
González J.
University of Limerick
Publisher(s)
Frontiers Media S.A.
Abstract
Inflammation is a complex biological response to injuries, metabolic disorders or infections. In the brain, astrocytes play an important role in the inflammatory processes during neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies have shown that the increase of free saturated fatty acids such as palmitic acid produces a metabolic inflammatory response in astrocytes generally associated with damaging mechanisms such as oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and autophagic defects. In this aspect, the synthetic neurosteroid tibolone has shown to exert protective functions against inflammation in neuronal experimental models without the tumorigenic effects exerted by sexual hormones such as estradiol and progesterone. However, there is little information regarding the specific mechanisms of tibolone in astrocytes during inflammatory insults. In the present study, we performed a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction of astrocytes that was used to study astrocytic response during an inflammatory insult by palmitate through Flux Balance Analysis methods and data mining. In this aspect, we assessed the metabolic fluxes of human astrocytes under three different scenarios: healthy (normal conditions), induced inflammation by palmitate, and tibolone treatment under palmitate inflammation. Our results suggest that tibolone reduces the L-glutamate-mediated neurotoxicity in astrocytes through the modulation of several metabolic pathways involved in glutamate uptake. We also identified a set of reactions associated with the protective effects of tibolone, including the upregulation of taurine metabolism, gluconeogenesis, cPPAR and the modulation of calcium signaling pathways. In conclusion, the different scenarios studied in our model allowed us to identify several metabolic fluxes perturbed under an inflammatory response and the protective mechanisms exerted by tibolone.
Volume
13
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Neurociencias Bioquímica, Biología molecular
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85079504945
Source
Frontiers in Neuroscience
ISSN of the container
16624548
Sponsor(s)
This research is the result of the master’s thesis presented by DO. This work was supported by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, and Colciencias IDs 7425, 7714, and 7740 to JG.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus