Chemogenetic stimulation of phrenic motor output and diaphragm activity

Impaired respiratory motor output contributes to morbidity and mortality in many neurodegenerative diseases and neurologic injuries. We investigated if expressing designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) in the mid-cervical spinal cord could effectively stimulate phrenic motor output to increase diaphragm activation. Two primary questions were addressed: (1) does effective DREADD-mediated diaphragm activation require focal expression in phrenic motoneurons (vs. non-specific mid-cervical expression), and (2) can this method produce a sustained increase in inspiratory tidal volume? Wild-type (C57Bl/6) and ChAT-Cre mice received bilateral intraspinal (C4) injections of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) encoding the hM3D(Gq) excitatory DREADD. In wild-type mice, this produced non-specific DREADD expression throughout the mid-cervical ventral horn. In ChAT-Cre mice, a Cre-dependent viral construct was used to drive neuronal DREADD expression in the C4 ventral horns, targeting phrenic motoneurons. Diaphragm electromyograms (EMG) were recorded in isoflurane-anesthetized spontaneously breathing mice at 4–9 weeks post-AAV delivery. The DREADD ligand JHU37160 (J60) caused a bilateral, sustained (>1 hr) increase in inspiratory EMG bursting in both groups; the relative increase was greater in ChAT-Cre mice. Additional experiments in ChAT-Cre rats were conducted to determine if spinal DREADD activation could increase inspiratory tidal volume during spontaneous breathing, assessed using whole-body plethysmography without anesthesia. Three to four months after intraspinal (C4) injection of AAV driving Cre-dependent hM3D(Gq) expression, intravenous J60 resulted in a sustained (>30 min) increase in tidal volume. Subsequently, phrenic nerve recordings performed under urethane anesthesia confirmed that J60 evoked a >200% increase in inspiratory output. We conclude that targeting mid-cervical spinal DREADD expression to the phrenic motoneuron pool enables ligand-induced, sustained increases in phrenic motor output and tidal volume. Further development of this technology may enable application to clinical conditions associated with impaired diaphragm activation and hypoventilation.