1
|
Barber AJ, Del Genio CL, Swain AB, Pizzi EM, Watson SC, Tapiavala VN, Zanazzi GJ, Gaur AB. Age, sex and Alzheimer's disease: a longitudinal study of 3xTg-AD mice reveals sex-specific disease trajectories and inflammatory responses mirrored in postmortem brains from Alzheimer's patients. Alzheimers Res Ther 2024; 16:134. [PMID: 38909241 PMCID: PMC11193202 DOI: 10.1186/s13195-024-01492-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/24/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Aging and sex are major risk factors for developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Compared to men, women experience worse neuropathological burden and cognitive decline despite living longer with the disease. Similarly, male 3xTg-AD mice, developed to model Alzheimer's disease, no longer consistently exhibit standard Alzheimer's neuropathology yet experience higher rates of mortality - providing a unique opportunity to further elucidate this dichotomy. We hypothesized that sex differences in the biological aging process yield distinct pathological and molecular Alzheimer's disease signatures in males and females, which could be harnessed for therapeutic and biomarker development. METHODS We aged male and female, 3xTg-AD and B6129 control mice across their respective lifespans (n = 3-8 mice per sex, strain, and age group) and longitudinally assessed neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, markers of hepatic inflammation, splenic mass and morphology, as well as plasma cytokine levels. We conducted RNA sequencing analysis on bulk brain tissue and examined differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between 3xTg-AD and B6129 samples and across ages in each sex. We also examined DEGs between clinical Alzheimer's and control parahippocampal gyrus brain tissue samples from the Mount Sinai Brain Bank study in each sex. RESULTS 3xTg-AD females significantly outlived 3xTg-AD males and exhibited progressive Alzheimer's neuropathology, while 3xTg-AD males demonstrated progressive hepatic inflammation, splenomegaly, circulating inflammatory proteins, and minimal Alzheimer's neuropathological hallmarks. Instead, 3xTg-AD males experienced an accelerated upregulation of immune-related gene expression in the brain relative to females. Our clinical investigations revealed that individuals with Alzheimer's disease develop similar sex-specific alterations in neuronal and immune function. In diseased males of both species, we observed greater upregulation of complement-related gene expression, and lipopolysaccharide was predicted as the top upstream regulator of DEGs. CONCLUSIONS Our data demonstrate that chronic inflammation and complement activation are associated with increased mortality, indicating that age-related changes in immune response contribute to sex differences in Alzheimer's disease trajectories. We provide evidence that aging and transgene-driven disease progression trigger a widespread inflammatory response in 3xTg-AD males, which mimics the impact of lipopolysaccharide stimulation despite the absence of infection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alicia J Barber
- Department of Neurology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | - Carmen L Del Genio
- Department of Neurology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | | | - Elizabeth M Pizzi
- The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, USA
- Neuroscience Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | - George J Zanazzi
- Department of Pathology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | - Arti B Gaur
- Department of Neurology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA.
- Integrative Neuroscience at Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Kong Y, Cao L, Wang J, Zhuang J, Liu Y, Bi L, Qiu Y, Hou Y, Huang Q, Xie F, Yang Y, Shi K, Rominger A, Guan Y, Jin H, Ni R. Increased Cerebral Level of P2X7R in a Tauopathy Mouse Model by PET Using [ 18F]GSK1482160. ACS Chem Neurosci 2024; 15:2112-2120. [PMID: 38776461 PMCID: PMC11157487 DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.4c00067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2024] [Revised: 05/16/2024] [Accepted: 05/17/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Neuroinflammation plays an important role in Alzheimer's disease and primary tauopathies. The aim of the current study was to map [18F]GSK1482160 for imaging of purinergic P2X7R in Alzheimer's disease and primary tauopathy mouse models. Small animal PET was performed using [18F]GSK1482160 in widely used mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (APP/PS1, 5×FAD, and 3×Tg), 4-repeat tauopathy (rTg4510) mice, and age-matched wild-type mice. Increased uptake of [18F]GSK1482160 was observed in the brains of 7-month-old rTg4510 mice compared to wild-type mice and compared to 3-month-old rTg4510 mice. A positive correlation between hippocampal tau [18F]APN-1607 and [18F]GSK1482160 uptake was found in rTg4510 mice. No significant differences in the uptake of [18F]GSK1482160 was observed for APP/PS1 mice, 5×FAD mice, or 3×Tg mice. Immunofluorescence staining further indicated the distribution of P2X7Rs in the brains of 7-month-old rTg4510 mice with accumulation of tau inclusion. These findings provide in vivo imaging evidence for an increased level of P2X7R in the brains of tauopathy mice.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yanyan Kong
- PET Center,
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200235, China
| | - Lei Cao
- PET Center,
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200235, China
- Institute
for Regenerative Medicine, University of
Zurich, Zurich 8952, Switzerland
| | - Jiao Wang
- Lab
of Molecular
Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Junyi Zhuang
- Lab
of Molecular
Neural Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
| | - Yongshan Liu
- Guangdong
Provincial Engineering Research Center of Molecular Imaging, The Fifth
Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519000, China
| | - Lei Bi
- Guangdong
Provincial Engineering Research Center of Molecular Imaging, The Fifth
Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519000, China
| | - Yifan Qiu
- Guangdong
Provincial Engineering Research Center of Molecular Imaging, The Fifth
Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519000, China
| | - Yuyi Hou
- Guangdong
Provincial Engineering Research Center of Molecular Imaging, The Fifth
Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519000, China
| | - Qi Huang
- PET Center,
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200235, China
| | - Fang Xie
- PET Center,
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200235, China
| | - Yunhao Yang
- PET Center,
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200235, China
| | - Kuangyu Shi
- Department
of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital,
Inselspital Bern, Bern 3010, Switzerland
| | - Axel Rominger
- Department
of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital,
Inselspital Bern, Bern 3010, Switzerland
| | - Yihui Guan
- PET Center,
Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200235, China
| | - Hongjun Jin
- Guangdong
Provincial Engineering Research Center of Molecular Imaging, The Fifth
Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519000, China
| | - Ruiqing Ni
- Institute
for Regenerative Medicine, University of
Zurich, Zurich 8952, Switzerland
- Department
of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital,
Inselspital Bern, Bern 3010, Switzerland
- Institute
for Biomedical Engineering, University of
Zurich & ETH Zurich, Zurich 8093, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Tapella L, Dematteis G, La Vitola P, Leva S, Tonelli E, Raddi M, Delconti M, Dacomo L, La Macchia A, Murari E, Talmon M, Malecka J, Chrostek G, Grilli M, Colombo L, Salmona M, Forloni G, Genazzani AA, Balducci C, Lim D. Genetic deletion of astrocytic calcineurin B1 prevents cognitive impairment and neuropathology development in acute and chronic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. Glia 2024; 72:899-915. [PMID: 38288580 DOI: 10.1002/glia.24509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2023] [Revised: 01/15/2024] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/20/2024]
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents an urgent yet unmet challenge for modern society, calling for exploration of innovative targets and therapeutic approaches. Astrocytes, main homeostatic cells in the CNS, represent promising cell-target. Our aim was to investigate if deletion of the regulatory CaNB1 subunit of calcineurin in astrocytes could mitigate AD-related memory deficits, neuropathology, and neuroinflammation. We have generated two, acute and chronic, AD mouse models with astrocytic CaNB1 ablation (ACN-KO). In the former, we evaluated the ability of β-amyloid oligomers (AβOs) to impair memory and activate glial cells once injected in the cerebral ventricle of conditional ACN-KO mice. Next, we generated a tamoxifen-inducible astrocyte-specific CaNB1 knock-out in 3xTg-AD mice (indACNKO-AD). CaNB1 was deleted, by tamoxifen injection, in 11.7-month-old 3xTg-AD mice for 4.4 months. Spatial memory was evaluated using the Barnes maze; β-amyloid plaques burden, neurofibrillary tangle deposition, reactive gliosis, and neuroinflammation were also assessed. The acute model showed that ICV injected AβOs in 2-month-old wild type mice impaired recognition memory and fostered a pro-inflammatory microglia phenotype, whereas in ACN-KO mice, AβOs were inactive. In indACNKO-AD mice, 4.4 months after CaNB1 depletion, we found preservation of spatial memory and cognitive flexibility, abolishment of amyloidosis, and reduction of neurofibrillary tangles, gliosis, and neuroinflammation. Our results suggest that ACN is crucial for the development of cognitive impairment, AD neuropathology, and neuroinflammation. Astrocyte-specific CaNB1 deletion is beneficial for both the abolishment of AβO-mediated detrimental effects and treatment of ongoing AD-related pathology, hence representing an intriguing target for AD therapy.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Laura Tapella
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Giulia Dematteis
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Pietro La Vitola
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Susanna Leva
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Elisa Tonelli
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Marco Raddi
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Marta Delconti
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Letizia Dacomo
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Alberto La Macchia
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Elisa Murari
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Maria Talmon
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Justyna Malecka
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Gabriela Chrostek
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Mariagrazia Grilli
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Laura Colombo
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Mario Salmona
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Gianluigi Forloni
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Armando A Genazzani
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| | - Claudia Balducci
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milano, Italy
| | - Dmitry Lim
- Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università del Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Barber AJ, del Genio CL, Swain AB, Pizzi EM, Watson SC, Tapiavala VN, Zanazzi GJ, Gaur AB. Age, Sex and Alzheimer's disease: A longitudinal study of 3xTg-AD mice reveals sex-specific disease trajectories and inflammatory responses mirrored in postmortem brains from Alzheimer's patients. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.12.23.573209. [PMID: 38187539 PMCID: PMC10769453 DOI: 10.1101/2023.12.23.573209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2024]
Abstract
Background Aging and sex are major risk factors for developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Compared to men, women are not only nearly twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's, but they also experience worse neuropathological burden and cognitive decline despite living longer with the disease. It remains unclear how and when sex differences in biological aging emerge and contribute to Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis. We hypothesized that these differences lead to distinct pathological and molecular Alzheimer's disease signatures in males and females, which could be harnessed for therapeutic and biomarker development. Methods We aged male and female, 3xTg-AD and B6129 (WT) control mice across their respective lifespans while longitudinally collecting brain, liver, spleen, and plasma samples (n=3-8 mice per sex, strain, and age group). We performed histological analyses on all tissues and assessed neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, markers of hepatic inflammation, as well as splenic mass and morphology. Additionally, we measured concentrations of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors in the plasma. We conducted RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis on bulk brain tissue and examined differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between 3xTg-AD and WT samples and across ages in each sex. We also examined DEGs between clinical Alzheimer's and control parahippocampal gyrus brain tissue samples from the Mount Sinai Brain Bank (MSBB) study in each sex. Results 3xTg-AD females significantly outlived 3xTg-AD males and exhibited progressive Alzheimer's neuropathology, while 3xTg-AD males demonstrated progressive hepatic inflammation, splenomegaly, circulating inflammatory proteins, and next to no Alzheimer's neuropathological hallmarks. Instead, 3xTg-AD males experienced an accelerated upregulation of immune-related gene expression in the brain relative to females, further suggesting distinct inflammatory disease trajectories between the sexes. Clinical investigations revealed that 3xTg-AD brain aging phenotypes are not an artifact of the animal model, and individuals with Alzheimer's disease develop similar sex-specific alterations in canonical pathways related to neuronal signaling and immune function. Interestingly, we observed greater upregulation of complement-related gene expression, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was predicted as the top upstream regulator of DEGs in diseased males of both species. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that chronic inflammation and complement activation are associated with increased mortality, revealing that age-related changes in immune response act as a primary driver of sex differences in Alzheimer's disease trajectories. We propose a model of disease pathogenesis in 3xTg-AD males in which aging and transgene-driven disease progression trigger an inflammatory response, mimicking the effects of LPS stimulation despite the absence of infection.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alicia J. Barber
- Department of Neurology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
- Integrative Neuroscience at Dartmouth, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Carmen L. del Genio
- Department of Neurology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | | | - Elizabeth M. Pizzi
- The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, USA
- Neuroscience Program, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | - George J. Zanazzi
- Department of Pathology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| | - Arti B. Gaur
- Department of Neurology, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA
| |
Collapse
|