|
1
|
Perez-Corredor P, Vanderleest TE, Vacano GN, Sanchez JS, Villalba-Moreno ND, Marino C, Krasemann S, Mendivil-Perez MA, Aguillón D, Jiménez-Del-Río M, Baena A, Sepulveda-Falla D, Lopera F, Quiroz YT, Arboleda-Velasquez JF, Mazzarino RC. APOE3 Christchurch modulates β-catenin/Wnt signaling in iPS cell-derived cerebral organoids from Alzheimer's cases. Front Mol Neurosci 2024; 17:1373568. [PMID: 38571814 PMCID: PMC10987717 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2024.1373568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2024] [Accepted: 02/22/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024] Open
Abstract
A patient with the PSEN1 E280A mutation and homozygous for APOE3 Christchurch (APOE3Ch) displayed extreme resistance to Alzheimer's disease (AD) cognitive decline and tauopathy, despite having a high amyloid burden. To further investigate the differences in biological processes attributed to APOE3Ch, we generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived cerebral organoids from this resistant case and a non-protected control, using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to modulate APOE3Ch expression. In the APOE3Ch cerebral organoids, we observed a protective pattern from early tau phosphorylation. ScRNA sequencing revealed regulation of Cadherin and Wnt signaling pathways by APOE3Ch, with immunostaining indicating elevated β-catenin protein levels. Further in vitro reporter assays unexpectedly demonstrated that ApoE3Ch functions as a Wnt3a signaling enhancer. This work uncovered a neomorphic molecular mechanism of protection of ApoE3 Christchurch, which may serve as the foundation for the future development of protected case-inspired therapeutics targeting AD and tauopathies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Paula Perez-Corredor
- Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear and Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Timothy E. Vanderleest
- Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear and Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | | | - Justin S. Sanchez
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Nelson D. Villalba-Moreno
- Molecular Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease, Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Claudia Marino
- Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear and Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Susanne Krasemann
- Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | | | - David Aguillón
- The Neuroscience Group of Antioquia, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
| | | | - Ana Baena
- The Neuroscience Group of Antioquia, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
| | - Diego Sepulveda-Falla
- Molecular Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s Disease, Institute of Neuropathology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Francisco Lopera
- The Neuroscience Group of Antioquia, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
| | - Yakeel T. Quiroz
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- The Neuroscience Group of Antioquia, University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Joseph F. Arboleda-Velasquez
- Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear and Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Randall C. Mazzarino
- Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass Eye and Ear and Department of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
|
2
|
Mazzarino RC, Perez-Corredor P, Vanderleest TE, Vacano GN, Sanchez JS, Villalba-Moreno ND, Krausemann S, Mendivil-Perez MA, Aguillón D, Jimenez-Del-Río M, Baena A, Sepulveda-Falla D, Lopera FJ, Quiroz YT, Arboleda-Velasquez JF. APOE3 Christchurch modulates tau phosphorylation and β-catenin/Wnt/Cadherin signaling in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cerebral organoids from Alzheimer's cases. bioRxiv 2023:2023.01.11.523290. [PMID: 36712026 PMCID: PMC9882052 DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.11.523290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia among older adults. APOE3 Christchurch (R136S, APOE3Ch ) variant homozygosity was reported in an individual with extreme resistance to autosomal dominant AD due to the PSEN1 E280A mutation. This subject had a delayed clinical age at onset and resistance to tauopathy and neurodegeneration despite extremely high amyloid plaque burden. We established induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived cerebral organoids from this resistant case and from a non-protected kindred control (with PSEN1 E280A and APOE3/3 ). We used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing to successfully remove the APOE3Ch to wild type in iPS cells from the protected case and to introduce the APOE3Ch as homozygote in iPS cells from the non-protected case to examine causality. We found significant reduction of tau phosphorylation (pTau 202/205 and pTau396) in cerebral organoids with the APOE3Ch variant, consistent with the strikingly reduced tau pathology found in the resistant case. We identified Cadherin and Wnt pathways as signaling mechanisms regulated by the APOE3Ch variant through single cell RNA sequencing in cerebral organoids. We also identified elevated β-catenin protein, a regulator of tau phosphorylation, as a candidate mediator of APOE3Ch resistance to tauopathy. Our findings show that APOE3Ch is necessary and sufficient to confer resistance to tauopathy in an experimental ex-vivo model establishing a foundation for the development of novel, protected case-inspired therapeutics for tauopathies, including Alzheimer's.
Collapse
|