Figure 3.

Neuroprotective effects of miR-7 and miR-153 against MPP⁺-toxicity. Six to seven days old primary cortical neurons were transduced with adenoviral particles expressing scramble miR, miR-7, miR-153, or both miR-7/153. After 24 h, transduced neurons were exposed for additional 24 h to various concentrations of MPP⁺. (A) Neuronal viability following MPP⁺-treatment was monitored by the MTT assay. Note that over-expression of miR-7 and/or miR-153 attenuated MPP⁺-induced cell death. (B,C) Equal amounts of total protein from lysates of transduced cortical neurons cultured for 24 h in the presence of 10 μM MPP⁺ were analyzed on 12% SDS-PAGE and immunoblotted with antibodies specific for BCL-2 (B) and cleaved caspase-3 (C). To ensure equal loading membranes were re-probed against GAPDH. Quantification of the results was performed by scanning densitometry. Note that compared to scramble-transduced untreated controls, only scramble-transduced cortical neurons displayed significant changes in BCL-2 and cleaved caspase-3 protein levels. Bars in all the depicted graphs correspond to mean ± s.e.m. ^*P ≤ 0.05, ^***P ≤ 0.001.