Whitehouse IJ, Miners JS, Glennon EBC, Kehoe PG, Love S, Kellett KAB, Hooper NM. Prion protein is decreased in Alzheimer's brain and inversely correlates with BACE1 activity, amyloid-β levels and Braak stage.
PLoS One 2013;
8:e59554. [PMID:
23577068 PMCID:
PMC3618446 DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0059554]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2012] [Accepted: 02/15/2013] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The cellular prion protein (PrPC) has been implicated in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). PrPC decreases amyloid-β (Aβ) production, which is involved in AD pathogenesis, by inhibiting β-secretase (BACE1) activity. Contactin 5 (CNTN5) has also been implicated in the development of AD by a genome-wide association study. Here we measured PrPC and CNTN5 in frontal cortex samples from 24 sporadic AD and 24 age-matched control brains and correlated the expression of these proteins with markers of AD. PrPC was decreased in sporadic AD compared to controls (by 49%, p = 0.014) but there was no difference in CNTN5 between sporadic AD and controls (p = 0.217). PrPC significantly inversely correlated with BACE1 activity (rs = −0.358, p = 0.006), Aβ load (rs = −0.456, p = 0.001), soluble Aβ (rs = −0.283, p = 0.026) and insoluble Aβ (rs = −0.353, p = 0.007) and PrPC also significantly inversely correlated with the stage of disease, as indicated by Braak tangle stage (rs = −0.377, p = 0.007). CNTN5 did not correlate with Aβ load (rs = 0.040, p = 0.393), soluble Aβ (rs = 0.113, p = 0.223) or insoluble Aβ (rs = 0.169, p = 0.125). PrPC was also measured in frontal cortex samples from 9 Down's syndrome (DS) and 8 age-matched control brains. In contrast to sporadic AD, there was no difference in PrPC in the DS brains compared to controls (p = 0.625). These data are consistent with a role for PrPC in regulating Aβ production and indicate that brain PrPC level may be important in influencing the onset and progression of sporadic AD.
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