Dynamic DNA Methylation Regulates Levodopa-Induced Dyskinesia

Levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a persistent behavioral sensitization that develops after repeated levodopa (L-DOPA) exposure in Parkinson disease (PD) patients. we used reduced representation bisulfite sequencing to determine the methylation status of cytosines genome wide at base pair resolution following a parkinsonian-like lesion and LID development. Due to the enrichment of RRBS, we focused our analysis to cytosines in a CpG context and observed extensive locus-specific changes in DNA methylation, including a preponderance of demethylation, in the dorsal striatum following the development of dyskinetic behaviors in our animal model system. Changes in DNA methylation were concentrated in putative regulatory regions of many genes known to be aberrantly transcribed following L-DOPA exposure and enriched for genes relevant to mechanisms of synaptic plasticity. In the areas of the genome exhibiting the highest levels of effect, the magnitudes of change to methylation were strongly correlated with dyskinetic behaviors.