Genetic and pharmacological demonstration of a role for cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase-mediated suppression of protein phosphatases in gating the expression of late LTP

Protein kinases and phosphatases play antagonistic roles in regulating hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP), with kinase inhibition and phosphatase activation both impairing LTP. The late phase of LTP (L-LTP) requires activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) for its full expression. One way in which PKA may critically modulate L-LTP is by relieving an inhibitory constraint imposed by protein phosphatases. Using mutant PKA mice [R(AB) transgenic mice] that have genetically reduced hippocampal PKA activity, we show that dercient L-LTP in area CA1 of mutant hippocampal slices is rescued by acute application of two inhibitors of protein phosphatase-1 and protein phosphatase-2A (PP1/2A) (okadaic acid and calyculin A). Furthermore, synaptic facilitation induced by forskolin, an adenylyl cyclase activator, was impaired in R(AB) transgenics and was also rescued by a PP1/2A inhibitor in mutant slices. Inhibition of PP1/2A did not affect early LTP (E-LTP) or basal synaptic transmission in mutant and wildtype slices. Our data show that genetic inhibition of PKA impairs L-LTP by reducing PKA-mediated suppression of PP1/2A.