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We present a mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) approach for the comprehensive mapping of neurotransmitter networks in specific brain regions. Our fluoromethylpyridinium-based reactive matrices facilitate the covalent charge-tagging of molecules containing phenolic hydroxyl and/or primary or secondary amine groups, including dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmitters and their associated metabolites. These matrices improved the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-MSI detection limit toward low-abundance neurotransmitters and facilitated the simultaneous imaging of neurotransmitters in fine structures of the brain at a lateral resolution of 10 mu m. We demonstrate strategies for the identification of unknown molecular species using the innate chemoselectivity of the reactive matrices and the unique isotopic pattern of a brominated reactive matrix. We illustrate the capabilities of the developed method on Parkinsonian brain samples from human post-mortem tissue and animal models. The direct imaging of neurotransmitter systems provides a method for exploring how various neurological diseases affect specific brain regions through neurotransmitter modulation.

L-DOPA treatment for Parkinson's disease frequently leads to dyskinesias, the pathophysiology of which is poorly understood. We used MALDI-MSI to map the distribution of L-DOPA and monoaminergic pathways in brains of dyskinetic and nondyskinetic primates. We report elevated levels of L-DOPA, and its metabolite 3-O-methyldopa, in all measured brain regions of dyskinetic animals and increases in dopamine and metabolites in all regions analyzed except the striatum. In dyskinesia, dopamine levels correlated well with L-DOPA levels in extrastriatal regions, such as hippocampus, amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and cortical areas, but not in the striatum. Our results demonstrate that L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia is linked to a dysregulation of L-DOPA metabolism throughout the brain. The inability of extrastriatal brain areas to regulate the formation of dopamine during L-DOPA treatment introduces the potential of dopamine or even L-DOPA itself to modulate neuronal signaling widely across the brain, resulting in unwanted side effects.

Neuropeptides are important signalling molecules in the brain and alterations in their expression levels have been linked to neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. It is challenging to map neuropeptide changes across and within brain regions because of their low in vivo concentrations and complex post-translational processing. Consequently, the role of neuropeptides in Parkinson's disease is not well understood. Thus, we have developed and evaluated a method to image multiple neuropeptides simultaneously in both rat and primate brain tissue sections by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry imaging at high lateral resolution. Using a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine rat model of Parkinson's disease, we imaged changes in enkephalins, dynorphins, tachykinins and neurotensin associated with the dopaminergic denervation and L-DOPA treatment in multiple brain regions. L-DOPA administration significantly affected neuropeptides in the globus pallidus, while neuropeptides in the caudate-putamen were mostly affected by dopamine depletion. Using high lateral resolution imaging, we observed an increase of neurotensin in the dorsal sub-region of the globus pallidus after dopamine depletion. This study highlights the capacity of mass spectrometry imaging to elucidate the dynamics of neuropeptide signalling during Parkinson's disease and its treatment.

L-DOPA administration is the primary treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD) but long-term administration is usually accompanied by hyperkinetic side-effects called L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID). Signalling neuropeptides of the basal ganglia are affected in LID and alterations in the expression of neuropeptide precursors have been described, but the final products of the precursors are not well defined and regionally mapped. Thus, we used matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging to visualize and quantify neuropeptides in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine exposed parkinsonian and LID Macaca mulatta brain samples. We found that the abundance of some abnormally processed peptides—des-tyrosine dynorphins, substance P (1-7) and substance P (1-9)—correlated with dyskinesia severity in multiple brain regions. Other dynorphins, α-neoendorphin and neurokinin A correlated with regional L-DOPA or dopamine levels in the internal and external globus pallidus. Our results demonstrate that the abundance of selected active neuropeptides is associated with local L-DOPA and dopamine concentrations, but the severity of LID is associated with loss of N-terminal tyrosine from dynorphin peptides and C-terminal truncation of substance P peptides, modifications that generally reduce the neuropeptides’ activity. 

There is evidence that cholinergic alterations are linked to various motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. We therefore used mass spectrometry imaging to investigate regional changes in acetylcholine abundance in the brain of a non-human primate model of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID). We also present an experimental design for performing untargeted analysis using MALDI-MSI with multiple experiments incorporating quality control samples to monitor experimental variability. We observed that MPTP treatment (i) led to reductions in putaminal acetylcholine levels that persisted after L-DOPA treatment and (ii) appeared to induce a shift of choline metabolism from α-glycerophosphocholine towards betaine. LID animals exhibited reduced levels of various metabolites important for brain homeostasis including S-adenosylmethionine, glutathione, adenosine monophosphate, and acylcarnitines. The vasculature marker heme B was upregulated in the putamen of LID animals, suggesting increased blood-flow in the dyskinetic putamen. These results provide new insights into pathological choline-related metabolic changes in PD and LID.