Abstract
Huntington's disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder featured by abnormal movements, arising from the extensive neuronal loss and glial dysfunction in the striatum. Although the causes and pathogenetic mechanisms of HD are well established, the development of disease-modifying pharmacological therapies for HD remains a formidable challenge. Laduviglusib has demonstrated neuroprotective effects through the enhancement of mitochondrial function in the striatum of HD animal models. Ferroptosis is a nonapoptotic form of cell death that occurs as a consequence of lethal iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and mitochondrial dysfunction. However, the ferroptosis-related mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective effects of laduviglusib in the striatum of HD patients remain largely uncharted. In this study, we leveraged single-nucleus RNA sequencing data obtained from the striatum of HD patients in stages 2-4 to identify differentially expressed genes within distinct cell-type. We subsequently integrated these differentially expressed genes of HD, laduviglusib target genes and ferroptosis-related genes to predict the ferroptosis-related mechanisms underpinning the neuroprotective effects of laduviglusib in HD patients. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analyses unveiled that the effects of laduviglusib on direct pathway striatal projection neurons (dSPNs) is mainly associated with Th17 cell differentiation pathways. Conversely, its impact on indirect pathway striatal projection neurons (iSPNs) extends to the Neurotrophin signaling pathway, FoxO signaling pathway, and reactive oxygen species pathway. In microglia, laduviglusib appears to contribute to HD pathology via mechanisms related to Th17 cell differentiation and the FoxO signaling pathway. Further, molecular docking results indicated favorable binding of laduviglusib with PARP1 (associated with dSPNs and iSPNs), SCD (associated with astrocytes), ALOX5 (associated with microglia), and HIF1A (associated with dSPNs, iSPNs, and microglia). In addition, the KEGG results suggest that laduviglusib may enhance mitochondrial function and protect against neuronal loss by targeting ferroptosis-related signaling pathways, particularly mediated by ALOX5 in microglia. These findings provide valuable insights into the potential mechanisms through which laduviglusib exerts its effects on distinct cell-types within the HD striatum.