Introduction: Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes most severe motor and sensory dysfunctions. In Chinese traditional medicine, the agonist of a purinergic receptor is believed to have a positive effect on SCIs, and 2-Methylthio-adenosine-5'-diphosphate (2-MesADP) is a selective agonist of the P2Y purinergic receptor.
Methods: To investigate its therapeutic function and molecular mechanism in SCI, transcriptome analysis associated with weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was carried out at various time points after T9 crush injury.
Results: 2-MesADP demonstrated recovery of limb motor function at the 6 weeks after injury, accompanied by neuronal regeneration and axon remyelination at 2 and 6 weeks. Furthermore, gene profiling revealed alternated gene expression with the treatment of 2-MesADP. These genes were assigned to a total of 38 modules, followed by gene ontology analysis; of these, 18 represented neuronal apoptosis and regeneration, immune response, synaptic transmission, cell cycle, and angiogenesis. In the neuronal apoptosis and regeneration module, Nefh, NeuroD6, and Dcx in the 2-MesADP group were noticed due to their interesting expression pattern. The gene expression patterns of Mag, Mog, and Cnp, which played key roles in myelination, were significantly changed with the treatment of 2-MesADP. Wnt signal pathway was the most important pathway in 2-MesADP treatment for acute SCI.
Conclusion: 2-MesADP enhanced locomotor recovery in mouse SCI by altering the expression of neuronal apoptosis and remyelination-related genes and Wnt signaling pathways.
Keywords: 2-Methylthio-adenosine-diphophate; Chinese traditional medicine; Purinergic receptor; Spinal cord injury; Transcriptome profile; Weighted gene coexpression network analysis.
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