Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the selective vulnerability of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic circuit. Recently, loss-of-function mutations in the PTEN-induced kinase 1 ( PINK1 ) gene have been linked to early-onset PD. How PINK1 deficiency causes dopaminergic dysfunction and degeneration in PD patients is unknown. Here, we investigate the physiological role of PINK1 in the nigrostriatal dopaminergic circuit through the generation and multidisciplinary analysis of PINK1 ^−/− mutant mice. We found that numbers of dopaminergic neurons and levels of striatal dopamine (DA) and DA receptors are unchanged in PINK1 ^−/− mice. Amperometric recordings, however, revealed decreases in evoked DA release in striatal slices and reductions in the quantal size and release frequency of catecholamine in dissociated chromaffin cells. Intracellular recordings of striatal medium spiny neurons, the major dopaminergic target, showed specific impairments of corticostriatal long-term potentiation and long-term depression in PINK1 ^−/− mice. Consistent with a decrease in evoked DA release, these striatal plasticity impairments could be rescued by either DA receptor agonists or agents that increase DA release, such as amphetamine or l -dopa. These results reveal a critical role for PINK1 in DA release and striatal synaptic plasticity in the nigrostriatal circuit and suggest that altered dopaminergic physiology may be a pathogenic precursor to nigrostriatal degeneration.

DYT1 dystonia is a severe form of inherited dystonia, characterized by involuntary twisting movements and abnormal postures. It is linked to a deletion in the dyt1 gene, resulting in a mutated form of the protein torsinA. The penetrance for dystonia is incomplete, but both clinically affected and non-manifesting carriers of the DYT1 mutation exhibit impaired motor learning and evidence of altered motor plasticity. Here, we characterized striatal glutamatergic synaptic plasticity in transgenic mice expressing either the normal human torsinA or its mutant form, in comparison to non-transgenic (NT) control mice. Medium spiny neurons recorded from both NT and normal human torsinA mice exhibited normal long-term depression (LTD), whereas in mutant human torsinA littermates LTD could not be elicited. In addition, although long-term potentiation (LTP) could be induced in all the mice, it was greater in magnitude in mutant human torsinA mice. Low-frequency stimulation (LFS) can revert potentiated synapses to resting levels, a phenomenon termed synaptic depotentiation. LFS induced synaptic depotentiation (SD) both in NT and normal human torsinA mice, but not in mutant human torsinA mice. Since anti-cholinergic drugs are an effective medical therapeutic option for the treatment of human dystonia, we reasoned that an excess in endogenous acetylcholine could underlie the synaptic plasticity impairment. Indeed, both LTD and SD were rescued in mutant human torsinA mice either by lowering endogenous acetylcholine levels or by antagonizing muscarinic M₁ receptors. The presence of an enhanced acetylcholine tone was confirmed by the observation that acetylcholinesterase activity was significantly increased in the striatum of mutant human torsinA mice, as compared with both normal human torsinA and NT littermates. Moreover, we found similar alterations of synaptic plasticity in muscarinic M₂/M₄ receptor knockout mice, in which an increased striatal acetylcholine level has been documented. The loss of LTD and SD on one hand, and the increase in LTP on the other, demonstrate that a ‘loss of inhibition’ characterizes the impairment of synaptic plasticity in this model of DYT1 dystonia. More importantly, our results indicate that an unbalanced cholinergic transmission plays a pivotal role in these alterations, providing a clue to understand the ability of anticholinergic agents to restore motor deficits in dystonia.