Autoradiographic labelling of metabotropic glutamate type 2/3 receptors in the hemi-parkinsonian rat brain.

L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) is the treatment of choice for Parkinson's disease (PD) motor symptoms, but its chronic use is hindered by complications such as dyskinesia. Pre-clinical studies discovered that activation of metabotropic glutamate type 2 and 3 (mGlu) receptors alleviates L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia. To gain mechanistic insight into the anti-dyskinetic activity of mGlu activation, we performed autoradiographic binding with [H]-LY-341,495 in brain sections from L-DOPA-treated 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-lesioned rats that developed mild or severe dyskinesia, as well as L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned and sham-lesioned animals. In the ipsilateral hemisphere, mildly dyskinetic 6-OHDA-lesioned rats showed a decrease in [H]-LY-341,495 binding in the entopeduncular nucleus (EPN, 30 % vs sham-lesioned rats, P<0.05), globus pallidus (GP, 28 % vs sham-lesioned rats, P<0.05; 23 % vs L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, P<0.001), and primary motor cortex (49 % vs sham-lesioned rats, P<0.05; 45 % vs L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, P<0.001). Severely dyskinetic 6-OHDA-lesioned rats exhibited an increase in binding in the primary motor cortex (43 % vs mildly dyskinetic 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, P<0.05). In the contralateral hemisphere, mildly dyskinetic 6-OHDA-lesioned rats harboured a decrease in binding in the EPN (30 % vs sham-lesioned rats; 24 % vs L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, both P<0.05), GP (34 % vs sham-lesioned rats, P<0.05; 23 % vs L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, P<0.001), and primary motor cortex (50 % vs sham-lesioned rats; 44 % vs L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, both P<0.05). Severely dyskinetic 6-OHDA-lesioned rats presented a decrease in binding in the GP (30 % vs sham-lesioned rats; 19 % vs L-DOPA-untreated 6-OHDA-lesioned rats, both P<0.05). Abnormal involuntary movements scores of 6-OHDA-lesioned animals were positively correlated with [H]-LY-341,495 binding in the ipsilateral striatum, ipsilateral EPN, ipsilateral primary motor cortex and contralateral primary motor cortex (all P<0.05). These results suggest that alterations in mGlu receptor levels may be part of an endogenous compensatory mechanism to alleviate dyskinesia.