Microglia-mediated
neuroinflammation is tightly correlated with the etiology and progression of
neurodegenerative disorders, including
Parkinson's disease (PD).
Nilotinib, a c-Abl inhibitor used for
chronic myeloid leukemia, has been proven effective in relieving PD progression. However, whether
nilotinib could affect
neuroinflammation is largely unknown. In this current study, we investigated the role of
nilotinib in microglia-mediated neuroinflammatory response in
Parkinson's disease.
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced
neuroinflammation in BV2 microglial cells and mouse brains were used as models for
Parkinson's disease. Our results demonstrated that
nilotinib significantly suppressed LPS-induced
neuroinflammation by reducing the production of pro-inflammatory factors including iNOS, COX-2, IL-1β,
IL-6 and TNF-α in BV2 cells. Moreover, pretreatment of
nilotinib attenuated the neurotoxicity of LPS-treated microglial
conditioned medium to MES23.5 dopaminergic (DA) neurons. Mechanismly,
nilotinib inhibited NF-κB signaling pathway and suppressed the nuclear translocation of p65 upon LPS stimulation. In LPS-injected mouse brains,
nilotinib administration markedly suppressed the activation of microglia and down-regulated COX-2 as well as IL-1β expression. Most importantly,
nilotinib effectively protected against microglial activation-mediated mouse DA neuronal loss. Taken together, our study suggests that
nilotinib exerts anti-neuroinflammatory effect and protects DA neurons from activated microglia-induced inflammatory damage through suppressing NF-κB signaling pathway, indicating its potential application in further clinical trials.