TY - JOUR T1 - Effects of L-DOPA on Gene Expression in the Frontal Cortex of Rats with Unilateral Lesions of Midbrain Dopaminergic Neurons JF - eneuro JO - eNeuro DO - 10.1523/ENEURO.0234-20.2020 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - ENEURO.0234-20.2020 AU - Anna Radlicka AU - Kinga Kamińska AU - Malgorzata Borczyk AU - Marcin Piechota AU - Michał Korostyński AU - Joanna Pera AU - Elżbieta Lorenc-Koci AU - Jan Rodriguez Parkitna Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://www.eneuro.org/content/8/1/ENEURO.0234-20.2020.abstract N2 - The development of Parkinson’s disease (PD) causes dysfunction of the frontal cortex, which contributes to the hallmark motor symptoms and is regarded as one of the primary causes of the affective and cognitive impairments observed in PD. Treatment with L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) alleviates motor symptoms but has mixed efficacy in restoring normal cognitive functions, which is further complicated by the psychoactive effects of the drug. We investigated how L-DOPA affects gene expression in the frontal cortex in an animal model of unilateral PD. We performed RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis of gene expression in the frontal cortex of rats with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced unilateral dopaminergic lesions treated with L-DOPA, for two weeks. The analysis of variance identified 48 genes with a significantly altered transcript abundance after L-DOPA treatment. We also performed a weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA), which resulted in the detection of five modules consisting of genes with similar expression patterns. The analyses led to three primary observations. First, the changes in gene expression induced by L-DOPA were bilateral, although only one hemisphere was lesioned. Second, the changes were not restricted to neurons but also appeared to affect immune or endothelial cells. Finally, comparisons with databases of drug-induced gene expression signatures revealed multiple nonspecific effects, indicating that a part of the observed response is a common pattern activated by multiple types of drugs in different target tissues. Taken together, our results identify cellular mechanisms in the frontal cortex that are involved in the response to L-DOPA treatment. ER -