Histological brain studies of individuals with DS have revealed an aberrant formation of the cerebral cortex. Previous work from our laboratory has shown that oleic acid acts as a neurotrophic factor and induces neuronal differentiation. In order to characterize the effects of oleic acid in a cellular model of DS, immortalized cell lines derived from the cortex of trisomy Ts16 (CTb) and normal mice (CNh) were incubated in the absence or presence of oleic acid. Oleic acid increased choline acetyltransferase expression (ChAT), a marker of cholinergic differentiation in CNh cells. However, in trisomic cells (CTb line) oleic acid failed to increase ChAT expression. These results suggest that the overdose of specific genes in trisomic lines delays differentiation in the presence of oleic acid by inhibiting acetylcholine production mediated by ChAT. The dual-specificity tyrosine (Y) phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) gene is located on human chromosome 21 and encodes a proline-directed protein kinase. It has been proposed that DYRK1A plays a prominent role in several biological functions, leading to mental retardation in DS patients. Here we explored the potential role of DYRK1A in the modulation of ChAT expression in trisomic cells and in the signaling pathways of oleic acid. Down-regulation of DYRK1A by siRNA in trisomic CTb cells rescued ChAT expression up to levels similar to those of normal cells in the presence of oleic acid. In agreement with these results, oleic acid was unable to increase ChAT expression in neuronal cultures of transgenic mice overexpressing DYRK1A. In summary, our results highlight the role played by DYRK1A in brain development through the control of ChAT expression. In addition, the overexpression of DYRK1A in DS models prevented the neurotrophic effect of oleic acid, a fact that may account for mental retardation in DS patients.
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