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McInvale JJ, Canoll P, Hargus G. Induced pluripotent stem cell models as a tool to investigate and test fluid biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Brain Pathol 2024; 34:e13231. [PMID: 38246596 PMCID: PMC11189780 DOI: 10.1111/bpa.13231] [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: 10/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/23/2024] Open
Abstract
Neurodegenerative diseases are increasing in prevalence and comprise a large socioeconomic burden on patients and their caretakers. The need for effective therapies and avenues for disease prevention and monitoring is of paramount importance. Fluid biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases have gained a variety of uses, including informing participant selection for clinical trials, lending confidence to clinical diagnosis and disease staging, determining prognosis, and monitoring therapeutic response. Their role is expected to grow as disease-modifying therapies start to be available to a broader range of patients and as prevention strategies become established. Many of the underlying molecular mechanisms of currently used biomarkers are incompletely understood. Animal models and in vitro systems using cell lines have been extensively employed but face important translatability limitations. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, where a theoretically unlimited range of cell types can be reprogrammed from peripheral cells sampled from patients or healthy individuals, has gained prominence over the last decade. It is a promising avenue to study physiological and pathological biomarker function and response to experimental therapeutics. Such systems are amenable to high-throughput drug screening or multiomics readouts such as transcriptomics, lipidomics, and proteomics for biomarker discovery, investigation, and validation. The present review describes the current state of biomarkers in the clinical context of neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. We include a discussion of how iPSC models have been used to investigate and test biomarkers such as amyloid-β, phosphorylated tau, neurofilament light chain or complement proteins, and even nominate novel biomarkers. We discuss the limitations of current iPSC methods, mentioning alternatives such as coculture systems and three-dimensional organoids which address some of these concerns. Finally, we propose exciting prospects for stem cell transplantation paradigms using animal models as a preclinical tool to study biomarkers in the in vivo context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie J. McInvale
- Department of Pathology and Cell BiologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
- Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
- Medical Scientist Training Program, Columbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Peter Canoll
- Department of Pathology and Cell BiologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
| | - Gunnar Hargus
- Department of Pathology and Cell BiologyColumbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
- Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia UniversityNew YorkNew YorkUSA
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Tschongov T, Konwar S, Busch A, Sievert C, Hartmann A, Noris M, Gastoldi S, Aiello S, Schaaf A, Panse J, Zipfel PF, Dabrowska-Schlepp P, Häffner K. Moss-produced human complement factor H with modified glycans has an extended half-life and improved biological activity. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1383123. [PMID: 38799460 PMCID: PMC11117068 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1383123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024] Open
Abstract
Most drugs that target the complement system are designed to inhibit the complement pathway at either the proximal or terminal levels. The use of a natural complement regulator such as factor H (FH) could provide a superior treatment option by restoring the balance of an overactive complement system while preserving its normal physiological functions. Until now, the systemic treatment of complement-associated disorders with FH has been deemed unfeasible, primarily due to high production costs, risks related to FH purified from donors' blood, and the challenging expression of recombinant FH in different host systems. We recently demonstrated that a moss-based expression system can produce high yields of properly folded, fully functional, recombinant FH. However, the half-life of the initial variant (CPV-101) was relatively short. Here we show that the same polypeptide with modified glycosylation (CPV-104) achieves a pharmacokinetic profile comparable to that of native FH derived from human serum. The treatment of FH-deficient mice with CPV-104 significantly improved important efficacy parameters such as the normalization of serum C3 levels and the rapid degradation of C3 deposits in the kidney compared to treatment with CPV-101. Furthermore, CPV-104 showed comparable functionality to serum-derived FH in vitro, as well as similar performance in ex vivo assays involving samples from patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, C3 glomerulopathy and paroxysomal nocturnal hematuria. CPV-104 - the human FH analog expressed in moss - will therefore allow the treatment of complement-associated human diseases by rebalancing instead of inhibiting the complement cascade.
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Affiliation(s)
- Todor Tschongov
- Department of Internal Medicine IV (Nephrology), Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Swagata Konwar
- Department of Internal Medicine IV (Nephrology), Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | | | | | - Andrea Hartmann
- Department of Infection Biology, Leibniz Insitute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Jena, Germany
| | - Marina Noris
- Centro di Ricerche Cliniche per le Malattie Rare “Aldo e Cele Dacco”, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Sara Gastoldi
- Centro di Ricerche Cliniche per le Malattie Rare “Aldo e Cele Dacco”, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Bergamo, Italy
| | - Sistiana Aiello
- Centro di Ricerche Cliniche per le Malattie Rare “Aldo e Cele Dacco”, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Bergamo, Italy
| | | | - Jens Panse
- Department of Oncology, Hematology, Hemostaseology and Stem Cell Transplantation, University Hospital Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Aachen, Germany
- Center for Integrated Oncology (CIO), Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf (ABCD) Germany Pauwelsstrasse 30, Aachen, Germany
| | - Peter F. Zipfel
- Department of Infection Biology, Leibniz Insitute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Microbiology, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany
| | | | - Karsten Häffner
- Department of Internal Medicine IV (Nephrology), Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
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Alpers CE. Seeing through the density of dense deposit disease. Kidney Int 2024; 105:929-931. [PMID: 38642992 DOI: 10.1016/j.kint.2024.02.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2024] [Accepted: 02/28/2024] [Indexed: 04/22/2024]
Abstract
Little is known about what constitutes the dense deposits of dense deposit disease (DDD), apart from components of the complement pathway. This study presents the novel finding that large accumulations of apolipoprotein E are present in the deposits of DDD, as revealed by mass spectroscopy and confirmed by both confocal microscopy and immunohistochemistry. The findings suggest a new modality for diagnosis of DDD and introduce potential new mechanisms for understanding DDD pathophysiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles E Alpers
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, Washington, USA.
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Madden B, Singh RD, Haas M, Palma LMP, Sharma A, Vargas MJ, Gross L, Negron V, Nate T, Charlesworth MC, Theis JD, Nasr SH, Nath KA, Fervenza FC, Sethi S. Apolipoprotein E is enriched in dense deposits and is a marker for dense deposit disease in C3 glomerulopathy. Kidney Int 2024; 105:1077-1087. [PMID: 38447879 DOI: 10.1016/j.kint.2024.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2023] [Revised: 01/31/2024] [Accepted: 02/02/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
C3 glomerulopathy (C3G) is a rare disease resulting from dysregulation of the alternative pathway of complement. C3G includes C3 glomerulonephritis (C3GN) and dense deposit disease (DDD), both of which are characterized by bright glomerular C3 staining on immunofluorescence studies. However, on electron microscopy (EM), DDD is characterized by dense osmiophilic mesangial and intramembranous deposits along the glomerular basement membranes (GBM), while the deposits of C3GN are not dense. Why the deposits appear dense in DDD and not in C3GN is not known. We performed laser microdissection (LCM) of glomeruli followed by mass spectrometry (MS) in 12 cases each of DDD, C3GN, and pretransplant kidney control biopsies. LCM/MS showed marked accumulation of complement proteins C3, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9 and complement regulating proteins CFHR5, CFHR1, and CFH in C3GN and DDD compared to controls. C3, CFH and CFHR proteins were comparable in C3GN and DDD. Yet, there were significant differences. First, there was a six-to-nine-fold increase of C5-9 in DDD compared to C3GN. Secondly, an unexpected finding was a nine-fold increase in apolipoprotein E (ApoE) in DDD compared to C3GN. Most importantly, immunohistochemical and confocal staining for ApoE mirrored the dense deposit staining in the GBM in DDD but not in C3GN or control cases. Validation studies using 31 C3G cases confirmed the diagnosis of C3GN and DDD in 80.6 % based on ApoE staining. Overall, there is a higher burden of terminal complement pathway proteins in DDD compared to C3GN. Thus, our study shows that dense deposits in DDD are enriched with ApoE compared to C3GN and control cases. Hence, ApoE staining may be used as an adjunct to EM for the diagnosis of DDD and might be valuable when EM is not available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Madden
- Mayo Clinic Proteomics Core, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Raman Deep Singh
- Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Mark Haas
- Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Lilian M P Palma
- Pediatric Nephrology, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
| | - Alok Sharma
- Department of Renal Pathology & Electron Microscopy, Dr Lal Path Labs, New Delhi, India
| | - Maria J Vargas
- Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - LouAnn Gross
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Vivian Negron
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Torell Nate
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | | | - Jason D Theis
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Samih H Nasr
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Karl A Nath
- Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Fernando C Fervenza
- Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
| | - Sanjeev Sethi
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
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Wen L, Bi D, Shen Y. Complement-mediated synapse loss in Alzheimer's disease: mechanisms and involvement of risk factors. Trends Neurosci 2024; 47:135-149. [PMID: 38129195 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2023.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2023] [Revised: 10/25/2023] [Accepted: 11/27/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
The complement system is increasingly recognized as a key player in the synapse loss and cognitive impairments observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In particular, the process of complement-dependent synaptic pruning through phagocytosis is over-activated in AD brains, driving detrimental excessive synapse elimination and contributing to synapse loss, which is the strongest neurobiological correlate of cognitive impairments in AD. Herein we review recent advances in characterizing complement-mediated synapse loss in AD, summarize the underlying mechanisms, and discuss the possible involvement of AD risk factors such as aging and various risk genes. We conclude with an overview of key questions that remain to be addressed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lang Wen
- Department of Neurology and Institute on Aging and Brain Disorders, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China
| | - Danlei Bi
- Department of Neurology and Institute on Aging and Brain Disorders, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Biomedical Aging Research, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, Hefei, 230026, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.
| | - Yong Shen
- Department of Neurology and Institute on Aging and Brain Disorders, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Biomedical Aging Research, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China; Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.
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