α-Synuclein Induces Neuroinflammation Injury through the IL6ST-AS/STAT3/HIF-1α Axis

The aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) promotes neuroinflammation and neuronal apoptosis, which eventually contribute to the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Our microarray analysis and experimental data indicated a significant expression difference of the long noncoding RNA IL6ST-AS and its anti-sense strand, IL6ST, in α-synuclein-induced microglia, compared with unstimulated microglia. IL6ST is a key component of the IL6R/IL6ST complex in the microglial membrane, which recognizes extracellular inflammatory factors, such as IL6. Studies have shown that the binding of IL6 to the IL6R/IL6ST complex could activate the JAK2-STAT3 pathway and promote an excessive immune response in glia cells. Meanwhile, the phosphorylation and activation of STAT3 could increase the transcription of HIF1A, encoding a hypoxia-inducible factor related to cytotoxic damage. Our results indicated that the overexpression of IL6ST-AS induced by exogenous α-synuclein could inhibit the expression of IL6ST and the activation of JAK2-STAT3 pathway in HMC3 cells. In addition, a reduction in STAT3 resulted in the transcription inhibition of HIF1A and the acceleration of oxidative stress injury in SH-SY5Y cells co-cultured with α-synuclein-induced HMC3 cells. Our findings indicate that IL6ST-AS is an important factor that regulates microglia activation and neuronal necrosis in the progression of PD. In the HMC3 and SH-SY5Y cell co-culture system, the overexpression of IL6ST-AS led to microglial dysfunction and neurotoxicology through the IL6ST-AS/STAT3/HIF-1α axis. Our research revealed the relationships among α-synuclein, IL6ST, STAT3, and HIF-1α in the pathological process of PD and provided a new inflammation hypothesis for the pathogenesis of PD.