| Summary: | Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder, which affects approximately 1–2% of the population over 60 years of age. Current treatments for PD are symptomatic, and the pathology of the disease continues to progresses over time until palliative care is required. Mitochondria are key players in the pathology of PD. Genetic and post mortem studies have shown a large number of mitochondrial abnormalities in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) of the parkinsonian brain. Furthermore, physiologically, mitochondria of nigral neurons are constantly under unusually high levels of metabolic stress because of the excitatory properties and architecture of these neurons. The protein deacetylase, Sirtuin 3 (SIRT3) reduces the impact subcellular stresses on mitochondria, by stabilising the electron transport chain (ETC), and reducing oxidative stress. We hypothesised that viral overexpression of myc-tagged SIRT3 (SIRT3-myc) would slow the progression of PD pathology, by enhancing the functional capacity of mitochondria. For this study, SIRT3-myc was administered both before and after viral induction of parkinsonism with the AAV-expressing mutant (A53T) α-synuclein. SIRT3-myc corrected behavioural abnormalities, as well as changes in striatal dopamine turnover. SIRT3-myc also prevented degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the SNc. These effects were apparent, even when SIRT3-myc was transduced after the induction of parkinsonism, at a time point when cell stress and behavioural abnormalities are already observed. Furthermore, in an isolated mitochondria nigral homogenate prepared from parkinsonian SIRT3–myc infected animals, SIRT3 targeted the mitochondria, to reduce protein acetylation levels. Our results demonstrate that transduction of SIRT3 has the potential to be an effective disease-modifying strategy for patients with PD. This study also provides potential mechanisms for the protective effects of SIRT3-myc.
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