The longevity-associated variant of BPIFB4 improves a CXCR4-mediated striatum–microglia crosstalk preventing disease progression in a mouse model of Huntington’s disease

The longevity-associated variant (LAV) of the bactericidal/permeability-increasing fold-containing family B member 4 (BPIFB4) has been found significantly enriched in long-living individuals. Neuroinflammation is a key player in Huntington’s disease (HD), a neurodegenerative disorder caused by neural death due to expanded CAG repeats encoding a long polyglutamine tract in the huntingtin protein (Htt). Herein, we showed that striatal-derived cell lines with expanded Htt (STHdh Q(111/111)) expressed and secreted lower levels of BPIFB4, when compared with Htt expressing cells (STHdh Q(7/7)), which correlated with a defective stress response to proteasome inhibition. Overexpression of LAV-BPIFB4 in STHdh Q(111/111) cells was able to rescue both the BPIFB4 secretory profile and the proliferative/survival response. According to a well-established immunomodulatory role of LAV-BPIFB4, conditioned media from LAV-BPIFB4-overexpressing STHdh Q111(/111) cells were able to educate Immortalized Human Microglia—SV40 microglial cells. While STHdh Q(111/111) dying cells were ineffective to induce a CD163 + IL-10(high) pro-resolving microglia compared to normal STHdh Q(7/7), LAV-BPIFB4 transduction promptly restored the central immune control through a mechanism involving the stromal cell-derived factor-1. In line with the in vitro results, adeno-associated viral-mediated administration of LAV-BPIFB4 exerted a CXCR4-dependent neuroprotective action in vivo in the R6/2 HD mouse model by preventing important hallmarks of the disease including motor dysfunction, body weight loss, and mutant huntingtin protein aggregation. In this view, LAV-BPIFB4, due to its pleiotropic ability in both immune compartment and cellular homeostasis, may represent a candidate for developing new treatment for HD.