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Vallabh SM, Zou D, Pitstick R, O’Moore J, Peters J, Silvius D, Kriz J, Jackson WS, Carlson GA, Minikel EV, Cabin DE. Therapeutic Trial of anle138b in Mouse Models of Genetic Prion Disease. J Virol 2023; 97:e0167222. [PMID: 36651748 PMCID: PMC9973041 DOI: 10.1128/jvi.01672-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 12/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Phenotypic screening has yielded small-molecule inhibitors of prion replication that are effective in vivo against certain prion strains but not others. Here, we sought to test the small molecule anle138b in multiple mouse models of prion disease. In mice inoculated with the RML strain of prions, anle138b doubled survival and durably suppressed astrogliosis measured by live-animal bioluminescence imaging. In knock-in mouse models of the D178N and E200K mutations that cause genetic prion disease, however, we were unable to identify a clear, quantifiable disease endpoint against which to measure therapeutic efficacy. Among untreated animals, the mutations did not impact overall survival, and bioluminescence remained low out to >20 months of age. Vacuolization and PrP deposition were observed in some brain regions in a subset of mutant animals but appeared to be unable to carry the weight of a primary endpoint in a therapeutic study. We conclude that not all animal models of prion disease are suited to well-powered therapeutic efficacy studies, and care should be taken in choosing the models that will support drug development programs. IMPORTANCE There is an urgent need to develop drugs for prion disease, a currently untreatable neurodegenerative disease. In this effort, there is a debate over which animal models can best support a drug development program. While the study of prion disease benefits from excellent animal models because prions naturally afflict many different mammals, different models have different capabilities and limitations. Here, we conducted a therapeutic efficacy study of the drug candidate anle138b in mouse models with two of the most common mutations that cause genetic prion disease. In a more typical model where prions are injected directly into the brain, we found anle138b to be effective. In the genetic models, however, the animals never reached a clear, measurable point of disease onset. We conclude that not all prion disease animal models are ideally suited to drug efficacy studies, and well-defined, quantitative disease metrics should be a priority.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sonia M. Vallabh
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- McCance Center for Brain Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Prion Alliance, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Dan Zou
- Montana Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Bozeman, Montana, USA
| | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, USA
| | - Jill O’Moore
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, USA
| | - Janet Peters
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, USA
| | - Derek Silvius
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, USA
| | - Jasna Kriz
- Cervo Brain Research Center, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada
| | - Walker S. Jackson
- Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - George A. Carlson
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of California—San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Eric Vallabh Minikel
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- McCance Center for Brain Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Prion Alliance, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Gnanaprakash M, Staniszewski A, Zhang H, Pitstick R, Kavanaugh MP, Arancio O, Nicholls RE. Leucine Carboxyl Methyltransferase 1 Overexpression Protects Against Cognitive and Electrophysiological Impairments in Tg2576 APP Transgenic Mice. J Alzheimers Dis 2021; 79:1813-1829. [PMID: 33459709 PMCID: PMC8203222 DOI: 10.3233/jad-200462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Background: The serine/threonine protein phosphatase, PP2A, is thought to play a central role in the molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the activity and substrate specificity of PP2A is regulated, in part, through methylation and demethylation of its catalytic subunit. Previously, we found that transgenic overexpression of the PP2A methyltransferase, LCMT-1, or the PP2A methylesterase, PME-1, altered the sensitivity of mice to impairments caused by acute exposure to synthetic oligomeric amyloid-β (Aβ). Objective: Here we sought to test the possibility that these molecules also controlled sensitivity to impairments caused by chronically elevated levels of Aβ produced in vivo. Methods: To do this, we examined the effects of transgenic LCMT-1, or PME-1 overexpression on cognitive and electrophysiological impairments caused by chronic overexpression of mutant human APP in Tg2576 mice. Results: We found that LCMT-1 overexpression prevented impairments in short-term spatial memory and synaptic plasticity in Tg2576 mice, without altering APP expression or soluble Aβ levels. While the magnitude of the effects of PME-1 overexpression in Tg2576 mice was small and potentially confounded by the emergence of non-cognitive impairments, Tg2576 mice that overexpressed PME-1 showed a trend toward earlier onset and/or increased severity of cognitive and electrophysiological impairments. Conclusion: These data suggest that the PP2A methyltransferase, LCMT-1, and the PP2A methylesterase, PME-1, may participate in the molecular pathogenesis of AD by regulating sensitivity to the pathogenic effects of chronically elevated levels of Aβ.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madhumathi Gnanaprakash
- Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Agnieszka Staniszewski
- Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Hong Zhang
- Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | | | - Ottavio Arancio
- Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Russell E Nicholls
- Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.,The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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Minikel EV, Zhao HT, Le J, O'Moore J, Pitstick R, Graffam S, Carlson GA, Kavanaugh MP, Kriz J, Kim JB, Ma J, Wille H, Aiken J, McKenzie D, Doh-Ura K, Beck M, O'Keefe R, Stathopoulos J, Caron T, Schreiber SL, Carroll JB, Kordasiewicz HB, Cabin DE, Vallabh SM. Prion protein lowering is a disease-modifying therapy across prion disease stages, strains and endpoints. Nucleic Acids Res 2020; 48:10615-10631. [PMID: 32776089 PMCID: PMC7641729 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [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: 05/13/2020] [Revised: 06/23/2020] [Accepted: 07/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Lowering of prion protein (PrP) expression in the brain is a genetically validated therapeutic hypothesis in prion disease. We recently showed that antisense oligonucleotide (ASO)-mediated PrP suppression extends survival and delays disease onset in intracerebrally prion-infected mice in both prophylactic and delayed dosing paradigms. Here, we examine the efficacy of this therapeutic approach across diverse paradigms, varying the dose and dosing regimen, prion strain, treatment timepoint, and examining symptomatic, survival, and biomarker readouts. We recapitulate our previous findings with additional PrP-targeting ASOs, and demonstrate therapeutic benefit against four additional prion strains. We demonstrate that <25% PrP suppression is sufficient to extend survival and delay symptoms in a prophylactic paradigm. Rise in both neuroinflammation and neuronal injury markers can be reversed by a single dose of PrP-lowering ASO administered after the detection of pathological change. Chronic ASO-mediated suppression of PrP beginning at any time up to early signs of neuropathology confers benefit similar to constitutive heterozygous PrP knockout. Remarkably, even after emergence of frank symptoms including weight loss, a single treatment prolongs survival by months in a subset of animals. These results support ASO-mediated PrP lowering, and PrP-lowering therapeutics in general, as a promising path forward against prion disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Vallabh Minikel
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
- Prion Alliance, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Hien T Zhao
- Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc, Carlsbad, CA 92010, USA
| | - Jason Le
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Jill O'Moore
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405, USA
| | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405, USA
| | | | | | | | - Jasna Kriz
- Cervo Brain Research Center, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1J 2G3, Canada
| | | | - Jiyan Ma
- Center for Neurodegenerative Science, Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA
| | - Holger Wille
- University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2M8, Canada
| | - Judd Aiken
- University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2M8, Canada
| | | | - Katsumi Doh-Ura
- Department of Neurochemistry, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan
| | - Matthew Beck
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Rhonda O'Keefe
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | | | - Tyler Caron
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Stuart L Schreiber
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
- Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | | | | | | | - Sonia M Vallabh
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
- Prion Alliance, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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DeVos SL, Corjuc BT, Commins C, Dujardin S, Bannon RN, Corjuc D, Moore BD, Bennett RE, Jorfi M, Gonzales JA, Dooley PM, Roe AD, Pitstick R, Irimia D, Frosch MP, Carlson GA, Hyman BT. Tau reduction in the presence of amyloid-β prevents tau pathology and neuronal death in vivo. Brain 2019; 141:2194-2212. [PMID: 29733334 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awy117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Several studies have now supported the use of a tau lowering agent as a possible therapy in the treatment of tauopathy disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. In human Alzheimer's disease, however, concurrent amyloid-β deposition appears to synergize and accelerate tau pathological changes. Thus far, tau reduction strategies that have been tested in vivo have been examined in the setting of tau pathology without confounding amyloid-β deposition. To determine whether reducing total human tau expression in a transgenic model where there is concurrent amyloid-β plaque formation can still reduce tau pathology and protect against neuronal loss, we have taken advantage of the regulatable tau transgene in APP/PS1 × rTg4510 mice. These mice develop both neurofibrillary tangles as well as amyloid-β plaques throughout the cortex and hippocampus. By suppressing human tau expression for 6 months in the APP/PS1 × rTg4510 mice using doxycycline, AT8 tau pathology, bioactivity, and astrogliosis were reduced, though importantly to a lesser extent than lowering tau in the rTg4510 alone mice. Based on non-denaturing gels and proteinase K digestions, the remaining tau aggregates in the presence of amyloid-β exhibit a longer-lived aggregate conformation. Nonetheless, lowering the expression of the human tau transgene was sufficient to equally ameliorate thioflavin-S positive tangles and prevent neuronal loss equally well in both the APP/PS1 × rTg4510 mice and the rTg4510 cohort. Together, these results suggest that, although amyloid-β stabilizes tau aggregates, lowering total tau levels is still an effective strategy for the treatment of tau pathology and neuronal loss even in the presence of amyloid-β deposition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah L DeVos
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Bianca T Corjuc
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Caitlin Commins
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Simon Dujardin
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Riley N Bannon
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Diana Corjuc
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Benjamin D Moore
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Rachel E Bennett
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Mehdi Jorfi
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, USA
| | - Jose A Gonzales
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Patrick M Dooley
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Allyson D Roe
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, USA
| | - Daniel Irimia
- Center for Engineering in Medicine, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Matthew P Frosch
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA.,C.S. Kubik Laboratory for Neuropathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - George A Carlson
- Center for Engineering in Medicine, Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Bradley T Hyman
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA
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5
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Pickett EK, Henstridge CM, Allison E, Pitstick R, Pooler A, Wegmann S, Carlson G, Hyman BT, Spires-Jones TL. Spread of tau down neural circuits precedes synapse and neuronal loss in the rTgTauEC mouse model of early Alzheimer's disease. Synapse 2017; 71:e21965. [PMID: 28196395 PMCID: PMC5516127 DOI: 10.1002/syn.21965] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2016] [Revised: 01/23/2017] [Accepted: 02/01/2017] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Synaptic dysfunction and loss is the strongest pathological correlate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease (AD) with increasing evidence implicating neuropathological tau protein in this process. Despite the knowledge that tau spreads through defined synaptic circuits, it is currently unknown whether synapse loss occurs before the accumulation of tau or as a consequence. To address this, we have used array tomography to examine an rTgTauEC mouse model expressing a P301L human tau transgene and a transgene labeling cytoplasm red (tdTomato) and presynaptic terminals green (Synaptophysin-EGFP). All transgenes are restricted primarily to the entorhinal cortex using the neuropsin promotor to drive tTA expression. It has previously been shown that rTgTauEC mice exhibit neuronal loss in the entorhinal cortex and synapse density loss in the middle molecular layer (MML) of the dentate gyrus at 24 months of age. Here, we observed the density of tau-expressing and total presynapses, and the spread of tau into the postsynapse in the MML of 3-6, 9, and 18 month old red-green-rTgTauEC mice. We observe no loss of synapse density in the MML up to 18 months even in axons expressing tau. Despite the maintenance of synapse density, we see spread of human tau from presynaptic terminals to postsynaptic compartments in the MML at very early ages, indicating that the spread of tau through neural circuits is not due to the degeneration of axon terminals and is an early feature of the disease process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleanor K Pickett
- The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, Centre for Dementia Prevention and the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Christopher M Henstridge
- The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, Centre for Dementia Prevention and the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Elizabeth Allison
- The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, Centre for Dementia Prevention and the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | | | - Amy Pooler
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Susanne Wegmann
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | | | - Bradley T Hyman
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Tara L Spires-Jones
- The University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, Centre for Dementia Prevention and the Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Disease Research, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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Bennett RE, DeVos SL, Dujardin S, Corjuc B, Gor R, Gonzalez J, Roe AD, Frosch MP, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Hyman BT. Enhanced Tau Aggregation in the Presence of Amyloid β. Am J Pathol 2017; 187:1601-1612. [PMID: 28500862 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2017.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 144] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2017] [Revised: 03/01/2017] [Accepted: 03/22/2017] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles co-occur in Alzheimer disease, but with different topological and temporal patterns. Whether these two lesions are independent or pathobiologically related is uncertain. For example, amyloid deposition in the neocortex precedes the spread of tau neurofibrillary tangles from the limbic areas to the cortex. We examined the aggregation properties of tau isolated from human cases with early tau pathology (Braak II) with and without plaques. Using a well-established HEK cell biosensor assay, we show that tau from cases with plaques has an enhanced ability to induce tau aggregates compared to tau from cases without plaques. To further explore this effect, we combined mice carrying the APP/PS1 transgene array that develop plaques with rTg4510 mice carrying the P301L mutant human tau transgene that develop extensive tau pathology with age. The resulting APP/PS1-rTg4510 mice had a threefold increase in tau seeding activity over the rTg4510 strain, without change in tau production or extracellular release. Surprisingly, this effect was observed before overt amyloid deposition. The enhancement of tau aggregation was also apparent by an increase in histological measures of tau pathology in young APP/PS1-rTg4510 mice and an increase in high-molecular-weight tau. Overall, these data provide evidence that amyloid β acts to enhance tau pathology by increasing the formation of tau species capable of seeding new aggregates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel E Bennett
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Sarah L DeVos
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Simon Dujardin
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Bianca Corjuc
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Rucha Gor
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Jose Gonzalez
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Allyson D Roe
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Matthew P Frosch
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts; C.S. Kubik Laboratory for Neuropathology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | | | | | - Bradley T Hyman
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
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7
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Nobuhara CK, DeVos SL, Commins C, Wegmann S, Moore BD, Roe AD, Costantino I, Frosch MP, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Hock C, Nitsch RM, Montrasio F, Grimm J, Cheung AE, Dunah AW, Wittmann M, Bussiere T, Weinreb PH, Hyman BT, Takeda S. Tau Antibody Targeting Pathological Species Blocks Neuronal Uptake and Interneuron Propagation of Tau in Vitro. Am J Pathol 2017; 187:1399-1412. [PMID: 28408124 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2017.01.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2017] [Accepted: 01/31/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The clinical progression of Alzheimer disease (AD) is associated with the accumulation of tau neurofibrillary tangles, which may spread throughout the cortex by interneuronal tau transfer. If so, targeting extracellular tau species may slow the spreading of tau pathology and possibly cognitive decline. To identify suitable target epitopes, we tested the effects of a panel of tau antibodies on neuronal uptake and aggregation in vitro. Immunodepletion was performed on brain extract from tau-transgenic mice and postmortem AD brain and added to a sensitive fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based tau uptake assay to assess blocking efficacy. The antibodies reduced tau uptake in an epitope-dependent manner: N-terminal (Tau13) and middomain (6C5 and HT7) antibodies successfully prevented uptake of tau species, whereas the distal C-terminal-specific antibody (Tau46) had little effect. Phosphorylation-dependent (40E8 and p396) and C-terminal half (4E4) tau antibodies also reduced tau uptake despite removing less total tau by immunodepletion, suggesting specific interactions with species involved in uptake. Among the seven antibodies evaluated, 6C5 most efficiently blocked uptake and subsequent aggregation. More important, 6C5 also blocked neuron-to-neuron spreading of tau in a unique three-chamber microfluidic device. Furthermore, 6C5 slowed down the progression of tau aggregation even after uptake had begun. Our results imply that not all antibodies/epitopes are equally robust in terms of blocking tau uptake of human AD-derived tau species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chloe K Nobuhara
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Sarah L DeVos
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Caitlin Commins
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Susanne Wegmann
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Benjamin D Moore
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Allyson D Roe
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Isabel Costantino
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Matthew P Frosch
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | | | | | - Christoph Hock
- Neurimmune, Schlieren, Switzerland; Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Roger M Nitsch
- Neurimmune, Schlieren, Switzerland; Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Bradley T Hyman
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
| | - Shuko Takeda
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
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8
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Jackson RJ, Rudinskiy N, Herrmann AG, Croft S, Kim JM, Petrova V, Ramos-Rodriguez JJ, Pitstick R, Wegmann S, Garcia-Alloza M, Carlson GA, Hyman BT, Spires-Jones TL. Human tau increases amyloid β plaque size but not amyloid β-mediated synapse loss in a novel mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Eur J Neurosci 2016; 44:3056-3066. [PMID: 27748574 PMCID: PMC5215483 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2016] [Revised: 09/21/2016] [Accepted: 10/13/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the presence of aggregates of amyloid beta (Aβ) in senile plaques and tau in neurofibrillary tangles, as well as marked neuron and synapse loss. Of these pathological changes, synapse loss correlates most strongly with cognitive decline. Synapse loss occurs prominently around plaques due to accumulations of oligomeric Aβ. Recent evidence suggests that tau may also play a role in synapse loss but the interactions of Aβ and tau in synapse loss remain to be determined. In this study, we generated a novel transgenic mouse line, the APP/PS1/rTg21221 line, by crossing APP/PS1 mice, which develop Aβ‐plaques and synapse loss, with rTg21221 mice, which overexpress wild‐type human tau. When compared to the APP/PS1 mice without human tau, the cross‐sectional area of ThioS+ dense core plaques was increased by ~50%. Along with increased plaque size, we observed an increase in plaque‐associated dystrophic neurites containing misfolded tau, but there was no exacerbation of neurite curvature or local neuron loss around plaques. Array tomography analysis similarly revealed no worsening of synapse loss around plaques, and no change in the accumulation of Aβ at synapses. Together, these results indicate that adding human wild‐type tau exacerbates plaque pathology and neurite deformation but does not exacerbate plaque‐associated synapse loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosemary J Jackson
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Centre for Dementia Prevention, The University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Nikita Rudinskiy
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Abigail G Herrmann
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Centre for Dementia Prevention, The University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Shaun Croft
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Centre for Dementia Prevention, The University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - JeeSoo Monica Kim
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Centre for Dementia Prevention, The University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | - Veselina Petrova
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Centre for Dementia Prevention, The University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
| | | | | | - Susanne Wegmann
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Bradley T Hyman
- Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Tara L Spires-Jones
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Centre for Dementia Prevention, The University of Edinburgh, 1 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK
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9
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Takeda S, Commins C, DeVos SL, Nobuhara CK, Wegmann S, Roe AD, Costantino I, Fan Z, Nicholls SB, Sherman AE, Trisini Lipsanopoulos AT, Scherzer CR, Carlson GA, Pitstick R, Peskind ER, Raskind MA, Li G, Montine TJ, Frosch MP, Hyman BT. Seed-competent high-molecular-weight tau species accumulates in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer's disease mouse model and human patients. Ann Neurol 2016; 80:355-67. [PMID: 27351289 DOI: 10.1002/ana.24716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2016] [Revised: 06/04/2016] [Accepted: 06/26/2016] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tau is an excellent surrogate marker for assessing neuropathological changes that occur in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. However, whether the elevated tau in AD CSF is just a marker of neurodegeneration or, in fact, a part of the disease process is uncertain. Moreover, it is unknown how CSF tau relates to the recently described soluble high-molecular-weight (HMW) species that is found in the postmortem AD brain and can be taken up by neurons and seed aggregates. METHODS We have examined seeding and uptake properties of brain extracellular tau from various sources, including interstitial fluid (ISF) and CSF from an AD transgenic mouse model and postmortem ventricular and antemortem lumbar CSF from AD patients. RESULTS We found that brain ISF and CSF tau from the AD mouse model can be taken up by cells and induce intracellular aggregates. Ventricular CSF from AD patients contained a rare HMW tau species that exerted a higher seeding activity. Notably, the HMW tau species was also detected in lumbar CSF from AD patients, and its levels were significantly elevated compared to control subjects. HMW tau derived from CSF of AD patients was seed competent in vitro. INTERPRETATION These findings suggest that CSF from an AD brain contains potentially bioactive HMW tau species, giving new insights into the role of CSF tau and biomarker development for AD. Ann Neurol 2016;80:355-367.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuko Takeda
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA.
| | - Caitlin Commins
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Sarah L DeVos
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Chloe K Nobuhara
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Susanne Wegmann
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Allyson D Roe
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Isabel Costantino
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Zhanyun Fan
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Samantha B Nicholls
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Alexis E Sherman
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | | | - Clemens R Scherzer
- Neurogenomics Lab and Parkinson Personalized Medicine Program, Harvard Medical School and Brigham & Women's Hospital, Cambridge, MA
| | | | | | - Elaine R Peskind
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.,Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA
| | - Murray A Raskind
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.,Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA
| | - Ge Li
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.,Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, WA
| | - Thomas J Montine
- Department of Pathology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA
| | - Matthew P Frosch
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
| | - Bradley T Hyman
- Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA
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10
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Gallego-Llamas J, Timms AE, Pitstick R, Peters J, Carlson GA, Beier DR. Improvement of ENU Mutagenesis Efficiency Using Serial Injection and Mismatch Repair Deficiency Mice. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0159377. [PMID: 27441645 PMCID: PMC4956170 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [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: 05/11/2016] [Accepted: 07/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
ENU mutagenesis is a powerful method for generating novel lines of mice that are informative with respect to both fundamental biological processes and human disease. Rapid developments in genomic technology have made the task of identifying causal mutations by positional cloning remarkably efficient. One limitation of this approach remains the mutation frequency achievable using standard treatment protocols, which currently generate approximately 1–2 sequence changes per megabase when optimized. In this study we used two strategies to attempt to increase the number of mutations induced by ENU treatment. One approach employed mice carrying a mutation in the DNA repair enzyme Msh6. The second strategy involved injection of ENU to successive generations of mice. To evaluate the number of ENU-induced mutations, single mice or pooled samples were analyzed using whole exome sequencing. The results showed that there is considerable variability in the induced mutation frequency using these approaches, but an overall increase in ENU-induced variants from one generation to another was observed. The analysis of the mice deficient for Msh6 also showed an increase in the ENU-induced variants compared to the wild-type ENU-treated mice. However, in both cases the increase in ENU-induced mutation frequency was modest.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jabier Gallego-Llamas
- Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States of America
| | - Andrew E. Timms
- Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States of America
| | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT, United States of America
| | - Janet Peters
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT, United States of America
| | - George A. Carlson
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT, United States of America
| | - David R. Beier
- Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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11
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Husson H, Moreno S, Smith LA, Smith MM, Russo RJ, Pitstick R, Sergeev M, Ledbetter SR, Bukanov NO, Lane M, Zhang K, Billot K, Carlson G, Shah J, Meijer L, Beier DR, Ibraghimov-Beskrovnaya O. Reduction of ciliary length through pharmacologic or genetic inhibition of CDK5 attenuates polycystic kidney disease in a model of nephronophthisis. Hum Mol Genet 2016; 25:2245-2255. [PMID: 27053712 PMCID: PMC5081056 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddw093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2015] [Accepted: 03/17/2016] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Polycystic kidney diseases (PKDs) comprise a subgroup of ciliopathies characterized by the formation of fluid-filled kidney cysts and progression to end-stage renal disease. A mechanistic understanding of cystogenesis is crucial for the development of viable therapeutic options. Here, we identify CDK5, a kinase active in post mitotic cells, as a new and important mediator of PKD progression. We show that long-lasting attenuation of PKD in the juvenile cystic kidneys (jck) mouse model of nephronophthisis by pharmacological inhibition of CDK5 using either R-roscovitine or S-CR8 is accompanied by sustained shortening of cilia and a more normal epithelial phenotype, suggesting this treatment results in a reprogramming of cellular differentiation. Also, a knock down of Cdk5 in jck cells using small interfering RNA results in significant shortening of ciliary length, similar to what we observed with R-roscovitine. Finally, conditional inactivation of Cdk5 in the jck mice significantly attenuates cystic disease progression and is associated with shortening of ciliary length as well as restoration of cellular differentiation. Our results suggest that CDK5 may regulate ciliary length by affecting tubulin dynamics via its substrate collapsin response mediator protein 2. Taken together, our data support therapeutic approaches aimed at restoration of ciliogenesis and cellular differentiation as a promising strategy for the treatment of renal cystic diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hervé Husson
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Sarah Moreno
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Laurie A Smith
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Mandy M Smith
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Ryan J Russo
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, 1520 23rd Street South, Great Falls, Montana 59405, USA
| | - Mikhail Sergeev
- Harvard Institutes of Medicine, 4 Blackfan Circle HIM568, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Steven R Ledbetter
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Nikolay O Bukanov
- Department of Rare Diseases, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 49 New York Avenue, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Monica Lane
- Department of Biological Mass Spectrometry & Biomarker Research, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 1 Mountain Road, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Kate Zhang
- Department of Biological Mass Spectrometry & Biomarker Research, Sanofi-Genzyme R&D Center, 1 Mountain Road, Framingham, MA 01701, USA
| | - Katy Billot
- ManRos Therapeutics, Hotel de Recherche-Centre de Perharidy, 29680 Roscoff, France
| | - George Carlson
- McLaughlin Research Institute, 1520 23rd Street South, Great Falls, Montana 59405, USA
| | - Jagesh Shah
- Harvard Institutes of Medicine, 4 Blackfan Circle HIM568, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Laurent Meijer
- ManRos Therapeutics, Hotel de Recherche-Centre de Perharidy, 29680 Roscoff, France
| | - David R Beier
- Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Seattle Children's Research Institute, 1900 9th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101, USA
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12
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Ahn M, Kalume F, Pitstick R, Oehler A, Carlson G, DeArmond SJ. Brain Aggregates: An Effective In Vitro Cell Culture System Modeling Neurodegenerative Diseases. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 2016; 75:256-62. [PMID: 26851378 DOI: 10.1093/jnen/nlv025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases is particularly challenging because of the discrepancies in drug effects between in vitro and in vivo studies. These discrepancies occur in part because current cell culture systems used for drug screening have many limitations. First, few cell culture systems accurately model human aging or neurodegenerative diseases. Second, drug efficacy may differ between dividing and stationary cells, the latter resembling nondividing neurons in the CNS. Brain aggregates (BrnAggs) derived from embryonic day 15 gestation mouse embryos may represent neuropathogenic processes in prion disease and reflect in vivo drug efficacy. Here, we report a new method for the production of BrnAggs suitable for drug screening and suggest that BrnAggs can model additional neurological diseases such as tauopathies. We also report a functional assay with BrnAggs by measuring electrophysiological activities. Our data suggest that BrnAggs could serve as an effective in vitro cell culture system for drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Misol Ahn
- From the Department of Pathology (MA, AO, SJD) and Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MA, SJD), University of California San Francisco, California; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (FK); and McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana (RP, GC).
| | - Franck Kalume
- From the Department of Pathology (MA, AO, SJD) and Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MA, SJD), University of California San Francisco, California; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (FK); and McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana (RP, GC)
| | - Rose Pitstick
- From the Department of Pathology (MA, AO, SJD) and Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MA, SJD), University of California San Francisco, California; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (FK); and McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana (RP, GC)
| | - Abby Oehler
- From the Department of Pathology (MA, AO, SJD) and Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MA, SJD), University of California San Francisco, California; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (FK); and McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana (RP, GC)
| | - George Carlson
- From the Department of Pathology (MA, AO, SJD) and Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MA, SJD), University of California San Francisco, California; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (FK); and McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana (RP, GC)
| | - Stephen J DeArmond
- From the Department of Pathology (MA, AO, SJD) and Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MA, SJD), University of California San Francisco, California; Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (FK); and McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana (RP, GC)
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13
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Wegmann S, Maury EA, Kirk MJ, Saqran L, Roe A, DeVos SL, Nicholls S, Fan Z, Takeda S, Cagsal-Getkin O, William CM, Spires-Jones TL, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Pooler AM, Hyman BT. Removing endogenous tau does not prevent tau propagation yet reduces its neurotoxicity. EMBO J 2015; 34:3028-41. [PMID: 26538322 DOI: 10.15252/embj.201592748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2015] [Accepted: 10/02/2015] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
In Alzheimer's disease and tauopathies, tau protein aggregates into neurofibrillary tangles that progressively spread to synaptically connected brain regions. A prion-like mechanism has been suggested: misfolded tau propagating through the brain seeds neurotoxic aggregation of soluble tau in recipient neurons. We use transgenic mice and viral tau expression to test the hypotheses that trans-synaptic tau propagation, aggregation, and toxicity rely on the presence of endogenous soluble tau. Surprisingly, mice expressing human P301Ltau in the entorhinal cortex showed equivalent tau propagation and accumulation in recipient neurons even in the absence of endogenous tau. We then tested whether the lack of endogenous tau protects against misfolded tau aggregation and toxicity, a second prion model paradigm for tau, using P301Ltau-overexpressing mice with severe tangle pathology and neurodegeneration. Crossed onto tau-null background, these mice had similar tangle numbers but were protected against neurotoxicity. Therefore, misfolded tau can propagate across neural systems without requisite templated misfolding, but the absence of endogenous tau markedly blunts toxicity. These results show that tau does not strictly classify as a prion protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Wegmann
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Eduardo A Maury
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Molly J Kirk
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Lubna Saqran
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Allyson Roe
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Sarah L DeVos
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Samantha Nicholls
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Zhanyun Fan
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Shuko Takeda
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Ozge Cagsal-Getkin
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Christopher M William
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Tara L Spires-Jones
- Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems and Euan MacDonald Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | | | | | - Amy M Pooler
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Bradley T Hyman
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
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14
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Takeda S, Wegmann S, Cho H, DeVos SL, Commins C, Roe AD, Nicholls SB, Carlson GA, Pitstick R, Nobuhara CK, Costantino I, Frosch MP, Müller DJ, Irimia D, Hyman BT. Neuronal uptake and propagation of a rare phosphorylated high-molecular-weight tau derived from Alzheimer's disease brain. Nat Commun 2015; 6:8490. [PMID: 26458742 PMCID: PMC4608380 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 244] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2015] [Accepted: 08/27/2015] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Tau pathology is known to spread in a hierarchical pattern in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain during disease progression, likely by trans-synaptic tau transfer between neurons. However, the tau species involved in inter-neuron propagation remains unclear. To identify tau species responsible for propagation, we examined uptake and propagation properties of different tau species derived from postmortem cortical extracts and brain interstitial fluid of tau-transgenic mice, as well as human AD cortices. Here we show that PBS-soluble phosphorylated high-molecular-weight (HMW) tau, though very low in abundance, is taken up, axonally transported, and passed on to synaptically connected neurons. Our findings suggest that a rare species of soluble phosphorylated HMW tau is the endogenous form of tau involved in propagation and could be a target for therapeutic intervention and biomarker development. In Alzheimer's disease, tau spreads throughout the brain, however the nature of the tau species propagating from one neuron to another is not known. Here, Takeda et al. identify a rare, high-molecular-weight tau as the primary species taken up and transferred between synaptically connected neurons.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuko Takeda
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Susanne Wegmann
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Hansang Cho
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.,Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223, USA
| | - Sarah L DeVos
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Caitlin Commins
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Allyson D Roe
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Samantha B Nicholls
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | | | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana 59405, USA
| | - Chloe K Nobuhara
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Isabel Costantino
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Matthew P Frosch
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Daniel J Müller
- Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Irimia
- BioMEMS Resource Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
| | - Bradley T Hyman
- Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
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15
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Wegmann S, Maury EA, Kirk MJ, Saqran L, Roe AD, Fan Z, Nicholls SB, DeVos SL, Takeda S, William CM, Spires-Jones TL, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Pooler A, Hyman BT. O2‐06‐01: Lack of endogenous tau permits tau spreading and protects against tau toxicity in transgenic mice. Alzheimers Dement 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2015.07.159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Wegmann
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | - Eduardo A. Maury
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | - Molly J. Kirk
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | - Lubna Saqran
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | - Allyson D. Roe
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | - Zhanyun Fan
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | | | - Sarah L. DeVos
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | - Shuko Takeda
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
| | | | | | | | | | - Amy Pooler
- King's College LondonLondonUnited Kingdom
| | - Bradley T. Hyman
- Massachusetts General HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolCharlestownMAUSA
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16
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Pooler AM, Polydoro M, Maury EA, Nicholls SB, Reddy SM, Wegmann S, William C, Saqran L, Cagsal-Getkin O, Pitstick R, Beier DR, Carlson GA, Spires-Jones TL, Hyman BT. Amyloid accelerates tau propagation and toxicity in a model of early Alzheimer's disease. Acta Neuropathol Commun 2015; 3:14. [PMID: 25853174 PMCID: PMC4371800 DOI: 10.1186/s40478-015-0199-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 159] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2015] [Accepted: 02/25/2015] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction In early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) are largely restricted to the entorhinal cortex and medial temporal lobe. At later stages, when clinical symptoms generally occur, NFT involve widespread limbic and association cortices. At this point in the disease, amyloid plaques are also abundantly distributed in the cortex. This observation from human neuropathological studies led us to pose two alternative hypotheses: that amyloid in the cortex is permissive for the spread of tangles from the medial temporal lobe, or that these are co-occurring but not causally related events simply reflecting progression of AD pathology. Results We now directly test the hypothesis that cortical amyloid acts as an accelerant for spreading of tangles beyond the medial temporal lobe. We crossed rTgTauEC transgenic mice that demonstrate spread of tau from entorhinal cortex to other brain structures at advanced age with APP/PS1 mice, and examined mice with either NFTs, amyloid pathology, or both. We show that concurrent amyloid deposition in the cortex 1) leads to a dramatic increase in the speed of tau propagation and an extraordinary increase in the spread of tau to distal brain regions, and 2) significantly increases tau-induced neuronal loss. Conclusions These data strongly support the hypothesis that cortical amyloid accelerates the spread of tangles throughout the cortex and amplifies tangle-associated neural system failure in AD. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40478-015-0199-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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17
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Pooler AM, Polydoro M, Wegmann SK, Pitstick R, Kay KR, Sanchez L, Carlson GA, Gomez-Isla T, Albers MW, Spires-Jones TL, Hyman BT. Tau-amyloid interactions in the rTgTauEC model of early Alzheimer's disease suggest amyloid-induced disruption of axonal projections and exacerbated axonal pathology. J Comp Neurol 2014; 521:4236-48. [PMID: 23839581 DOI: 10.1002/cne.23411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2013] [Revised: 05/02/2013] [Accepted: 06/28/2013] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Early observations of the patterns of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease suggested a hierarchical vulnerability of neurons for tangles, and a widespread nonspecific pattern of plaques that nonetheless seemed to correlate with the terminal zone of tangle-bearing neurons in some instances. The first neurofibrillary cortical lesions in Alzheimer's disease occur in the entorhinal cortex, thereby disrupting the origin of the perforant pathway projection to the hippocampus, and amyloid deposits are often found in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus, which is the terminal zone of the entorhinal cortex. We modeled these anatomical changes in a transgenic mouse model that overexpresses both P301L tau (uniquely in the medial entorhinal cortex) and mutant APP/PS1 (in a widespread distribution) to examine the anatomical consequences of early tangles, plaques, or the combination. We find that tau uniformly occupies the terminal zone of the perforant pathway in tau-expressing mice. By contrast, the addition of amyloid deposits in this area leads to disruption of the perforant pathway terminal zone and apparent aberrant distribution of tau-containing axons. Moreover, human P301L tau-containing axons appear to increase the extent of dystrophic axons around plaques. Thus, the presence of amyloid deposits in the axonal terminal zone of pathological tau-containing neurons profoundly impacts their normal connectivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy M Pooler
- King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, London, SE5 8AF, UK; Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 02129, USA
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Spires-Jones TL, Friedman T, Pitstick R, Polydoro M, Roe A, Carlson GA, Hyman BT. Methylene blue does not reverse existing neurofibrillary tangle pathology in the rTg4510 mouse model of tauopathy. Neurosci Lett 2014; 562:63-8. [PMID: 24462887 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.01.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2013] [Revised: 12/18/2013] [Accepted: 01/10/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is characterized pathologically by aggregation of amyloid beta into senile plaques and aggregation of pathologically modified tau into neurofibrillary tangles. While changes in amyloid processing are strongly implicated in disease initiation, the recent failure of amyloid-based therapies has highlighted the importance of tau as a therapeutic target. "Tangle busting" compounds including methylene blue and analogous molecules are currently being evaluated as therapeutics in Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies indicated that methylene blue can reverse tau aggregation in vitro after 10 min, and subsequent studies suggested that high levels of drug reduce tau protein levels (assessed biochemically) in vivo. Here, we tested whether methylene blue could remove established neurofibrillary tangles in the rTg4510 model of tauopathy, which develops robust tangle pathology. We find that 6 weeks of methylene blue dosing in the water from 16 months to 17.5 months of age decreases soluble tau but does not remove sarkosyl insoluble tau, or histologically defined PHF1 or Gallyas positive tangle pathology. These data indicate that methylene blue treatment will likely not rapidly reverse existing tangle pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tara L Spires-Jones
- Massachusetts General Hospital, 114 16th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
| | - Taylor Friedman
- Massachusetts General Hospital, 114 16th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | | | - Manuela Polydoro
- Massachusetts General Hospital, 114 16th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Allyson Roe
- Massachusetts General Hospital, 114 16th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | | | - Bradley T Hyman
- Massachusetts General Hospital, 114 16th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
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19
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Kopeikina KJ, Polydoro M, Tai HC, Yaeger E, Carlson GA, Pitstick R, Hyman BT, Spires-Jones TL. Synaptic alterations in the rTg4510 mouse model of tauopathy. J Comp Neurol 2013; 521:1334-53. [PMID: 23047530 DOI: 10.1002/cne.23234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2012] [Revised: 09/07/2012] [Accepted: 10/02/2012] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Synapse loss, rather than the hallmark amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques or tau-filled neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), is considered the most predictive pathological feature associated with cognitive status in the Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain. The role of Aβ in synapse loss is well established, but despite data linking tau to synaptic function, the role of tau in synapse loss remains largely undetermined. Here we test the hypothesis that human mutant P301L tau overexpression in a mouse model (rTg4510) will lead to age-dependent synaptic loss and dysfunction. Using array tomography and two methods of quantification (automated, threshold-based counting and a manual stereology-based technique) we demonstrate that overall synapse density is maintained in the neuropil, implicating synapse loss commensurate with the cortical atrophy known to occur in this model. Multiphoton in vivo imaging reveals close to 30% loss of apical dendritic spines of individual pyramidal neurons, suggesting these cells may be particularly vulnerable to tau-induced degeneration. Postmortem, we confirm the presence of tau in dendritic spines of rTg4510-YFP mouse brain by array tomography. These data implicate tau-induced loss of a subset of synapses that may be accompanied by compensatory increases in other synaptic subtypes, thereby preserving overall synapse density. Biochemical fractionation of synaptosomes from rTg4510 brain demonstrates a significant decrease in expression of several synaptic proteins, suggesting a functional deficit of remaining synapses in the rTg4510 brain. Together, these data show morphological and biochemical synaptic consequences in response to tau overexpression in the rTg4510 mouse model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine J Kopeikina
- Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA
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20
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Silvius D, Pitstick R, Ahn M, Meishery D, Oehler A, Barsh GS, DeArmond SJ, Carlson GA, Gunn TM. Levels of the Mahogunin Ring Finger 1 E3 ubiquitin ligase do not influence prion disease. PLoS One 2013; 8:e55575. [PMID: 23383230 PMCID: PMC3559536 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [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: 09/17/2012] [Accepted: 01/03/2013] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Prion diseases are rare but invariably fatal neurodegenerative disorders. They are associated with spongiform encephalopathy, a histopathology characterized by the presence of large, membrane-bound vacuolar structures in the neuropil of the brain. While the primary cause is recognized as conversion of the normal form of prion protein (PrPC) to a conformationally distinct, pathogenic form (PrPSc), the cellular pathways and mechanisms that lead to spongiform change, neuronal dysfunction and death are not known. Mice lacking the Mahogunin Ring Finger 1 (MGRN1) E3 ubiquitin ligase develop spongiform encephalopathy by 9 months of age but do not become ill. In cell culture, PrP aberrantly present in the cytosol was reported to interact with and sequester MGRN1. This caused endo-lysosomal trafficking defects similar to those observed when Mgrn1 expression is knocked down, implicating disrupted MGRN1-dependent trafficking in the pathogenesis of prion disease. As these defects were rescued by over-expression of MGRN1, we investigated whether reduced or elevated Mgrn1 expression influences the onset, progression or pathology of disease in mice inoculated with PrPSc. No differences were observed, indicating that disruption of MGRN1-dependent pathways does not play a significant role in the pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek Silvius
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
| | - Rose Pitstick
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
| | - Misol Ahn
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Delisha Meishery
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
| | - Abby Oehler
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Gregory S. Barsh
- Departments of Genetics and Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America
| | - Stephen J. DeArmond
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - George A. Carlson
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
| | - Teresa M. Gunn
- McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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21
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de Calignon A, Polydoro M, Suárez-Calvet M, William C, Adamowicz D, Kopeikina K, Pitstick R, Sahara N, Ashe K, Carlson G, Spires-Jones T, Hyman B. Propagation of Tau Pathology in a Model of Early Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuron 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Spires-Jones TL, Fox LM, Rozkalne A, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Kazantsev AG. Inhibition of Sirtuin 2 with Sulfobenzoic Acid Derivative AK1 is Non-Toxic and Potentially Neuroprotective in a Mouse Model of Frontotemporal Dementia. Front Pharmacol 2012; 3:42. [PMID: 22416232 PMCID: PMC3298895 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2012.00042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2012] [Accepted: 02/24/2012] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Tauopathies including tau-associated Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease are characterized pathologically by the formation of tau-containing neurofibrillary aggregates and neuronal loss, which contribute to cognitive decline. There are currently no effective treatments to prevent or slow this neural systems failure. The rTg4510 mouse model, which expresses a mutant form of the tau protein associated with FTD with Parkinsonism-17, undergoes dramatic hippocampal and cortical neuronal loss making it an ideal model to study treatments for FTD-related neuronal loss. Sirtuins are a family of proteins involved in cell survival that have the potential to modulate neuronal loss in neurodegenerative disorders. Here we tested the hypothesis that sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) inhibition would be non-toxic and prevent neurodegeneration in rTg4510 brain. In this study we delivered SIRT2 inhibitor AK1 directly to the hippocampus with an osmotic minipump and confirmed that it reached the target region both with histological assessment of delivery of a dye and with a pharmacodynamic marker, ABCA1 transcription, which was upregulated with AK1 treatment. AK1 treatment was found to be safe in wild-type mice and in the rTg4510 mouse model, and further, it provided some neuroprotection in the rTg4510 hippocampal circuitry. This study provides proof-of-concept for therapeutic benefits of SIRT2 inhibitors in both tau-associated FTD and Alzheimer’s disease, and suggests that development of potent, brain permeable SIRT2 inhibitors is warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tara L Spires-Jones
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Charlestown, MA, USA
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23
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Westaway D, Genovesi S, Daude N, Brown R, Lau A, Lee I, Mays CE, Coomaraswamy J, Canine B, Pitstick R, Herbst A, Yang J, Ko KWS, Schmitt-Ulms G, Dearmond SJ, McKenzie D, Hood L, Carlson GA. Down-regulation of Shadoo in prion infections traces a pre-clinical event inversely related to PrP(Sc) accumulation. PLoS Pathog 2011; 7:e1002391. [PMID: 22114562 PMCID: PMC3219720 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002391] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2011] [Accepted: 10/07/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
During prion infections of the central nervous system (CNS) the cellular prion protein, PrP(C), is templated to a conformationally distinct form, PrP(Sc). Recent studies have demonstrated that the Sprn gene encodes a GPI-linked glycoprotein Shadoo (Sho), which localizes to a similar membrane environment as PrP(C) and is reduced in the brains of rodents with terminal prion disease. Here, analyses of prion-infected mice revealed that down-regulation of Sho protein was not related to Sprn mRNA abundance at any stage in prion infection. Down-regulation was robust upon propagation of a variety of prion strains in Prnp(a) and Prnp(b) mice, with the exception of the mouse-adapted BSE strain 301 V. In addition, Sho encoded by a TgSprn transgene was down-regulated to the same extent as endogenous Sho. Reduced Sho levels were not seen in a tauopathy, in chemically induced spongiform degeneration or in transgenic mice expressing the extracellular ADan amyloid peptide of familial Danish dementia. Insofar as prion-infected Prnp hemizygous mice exhibited accumulation of PrP(Sc) and down-regulation of Sho hundreds of days prior to onset of neurologic symptoms, Sho depletion can be excluded as an important trigger for clinical disease or as a simple consequence of neuronal damage. These studies instead define a disease-specific effect, and we hypothesize that membrane-associated Sho comprises a bystander substrate for processes degrading PrP(Sc). Thus, while protease-resistant PrP detected by in vitro digestion allows post mortem diagnosis, decreased levels of endogenous Sho may trace an early response to PrP(Sc) accumulation that operates in the CNS in vivo. This cellular response may offer new insights into the homeostatic mechanisms involved in detection and clearance of the misfolded proteins that drive prion disease pathogenesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Westaway
- Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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24
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Kopeikina KJ, Carlson GA, Pitstick R, Ludvigson AE, Peters A, Luebke JI, Koffie RM, Frosch MP, Hyman BT, Spires-Jones TL. Tau accumulation causes mitochondrial distribution deficits in neurons in a mouse model of tauopathy and in human Alzheimer's disease brain. Am J Pathol 2011; 179:2071-82. [PMID: 21854751 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2011.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 194] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2011] [Revised: 06/20/2011] [Accepted: 07/01/2011] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), intracellular inclusions of abnormal fibrillar forms of microtubule associated protein tau, accumulate in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other tauopathies and are believed to cause neuronal dysfunction, but the mechanism of tau-mediated toxicity are uncertain. Tau overexpression in cell culture impairs localization and trafficking of organelles. Here we tested the hypothesis that, in the intact brain, changes in mitochondrial distribution occur secondary to pathological changes in tau. Array tomography, a high-resolution imaging technique, was used to examine mitochondria in the reversible transgenic (rTg)4510, a regulatable transgenic, mouse model and AD brain tissue. Mitochondrial distribution is progressively disrupted with age in rTg4510 brain, particularly in somata and neurites containing Alz50-positive tau aggregates. Suppression of soluble tau expression with doxycycline resulted in complete recovery of mitochondrial distribution, despite the continued presence of aggregated tau. The effect on mitochondrial distribution occurs without concomitant alterations in neuropil mitochondrial size, as assessed by both array tomography and electron microscopy. Similar mitochondrial localization alterations were also observed in human AD tissue in Alz50+ neurons, confirming the relevance of tau to mitochondrial trafficking observed in this animal model. Because abnormalities reverted to normal if soluble tau was suppressed in rTg4510 mice, even in the continued presence of fibrillar tau inclusions, we suggest that soluble tau plays an important role in mitochondrial abnormalities, which likely contribute to neuronal dysfunction in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine J Kopeikina
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown Massachusetts, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
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25
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Hyman BT, Calignon A, Suarez-Calvet M, William C, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Spires-Jones TL. PL‐05‐01: A transgenic model of the earliest stage of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement 2010. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2010.05.513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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26
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de Calignon A, Fox LM, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Bacskai BJ, Spires-Jones TL, Hyman BT. Caspase activation precedes and leads to tangles. Nature 2010; 464:1201-4. [PMID: 20357768 DOI: 10.1038/nature08890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 378] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2009] [Accepted: 02/10/2010] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Studies of post-mortem tissue have shown that the location of fibrillar tau deposits, called neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), matches closely with regions of massive neuronal death, severe cytological abnormalities, and markers of caspase activation and apoptosis, leading to the idea that tangles cause neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and tau-related frontotemporal dementia. However, using in vivo multiphoton imaging to observe tangles and activation of executioner caspases in living tau transgenic mice (Tg4510 strain), we find the opposite: caspase activation occurs first, and precedes tangle formation by hours to days. New tangles form within a day. After a new tangle forms, the neuron remains alive and caspase activity seems to be suppressed. Similarly, introduction of wild-type 4-repeat tau (tau-4R) into wild-type animals triggered caspase activation, tau truncation and tau aggregation. Adeno-associated virus-mediated expression of a construct mimicking caspase-cleaved tau into wild-type mice led to the appearance of intracellular aggregates, tangle-related conformational- and phospho-epitopes, and the recruitment of full-length endogenous tau to the aggregates. On the basis of these data, we propose a new model in which caspase activation cleaves tau to initiate tangle formation, then truncated tau recruits normal tau to misfold and form tangles. Because tangle-bearing neurons are long-lived, we suggest that tangles are 'off pathway' to acute neuronal death. Soluble tau species, rather than fibrillar tau, may be the critical toxic moiety underlying neurodegeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alix de Calignon
- MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Department of Neurology, Alzheimer's Disease Research Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA
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27
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Gehlenborg N, Hwang D, Lee IY, Yoo H, Baxter D, Petritis B, Pitstick R, Marzolf B, DeArmond SJ, Carlson GA, Hood L. The Prion Disease Database: a comprehensive transcriptome resource for systems biology research in prion diseases. Database (Oxford) 2009; 2009:bap011. [PMID: 20157484 PMCID: PMC2790306 DOI: 10.1093/database/bap011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2009] [Revised: 07/17/2009] [Accepted: 08/11/2009] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Prion diseases reflect conformational conversion of benign isoforms of prion protein (PrP(C)) to malignant PrP(Sc) isoforms. Networks perturbed by PrP(Sc) accumulation and their ties to pathological events are poorly understood. Time-course transcriptomic and phenotypic data in animal models are critical for understanding prion-perturbed networks in systems biology studies. Here, we present the Prion Disease Database (PDDB), the most comprehensive data resource on mouse prion diseases to date. The PDDB contains: (i) time-course mRNA measurements spanning the interval from prion inoculation through appearance of clinical signs in eight mouse strain-prion strain combinations and (ii) histoblots showing temporal PrP(Sc) accumulation patterns in brains from each mouse-prion combination. To facilitate prion research, the PDDB also provides a suite of analytical tools for reconstructing dynamic networks via integration of temporal mRNA and interaction data and for analyzing these networks to generate hypotheses.Database URL:http://prion.systemsbiology.net.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nils Gehlenborg
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Daehee Hwang
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Inyoul Y. Lee
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Hyuntae Yoo
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - David Baxter
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Brianne Petritis
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Rose Pitstick
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Bruz Marzolf
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Stephen J. DeArmond
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - George A. Carlson
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Leroy Hood
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK, I-Bio Program & Department of Chemical Engineering, POSTECH, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea, McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405 and Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
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Hwang D, Lee IY, Yoo H, Gehlenborg N, Cho JH, Petritis B, Baxter D, Pitstick R, Young R, Spicer D, Price ND, Hohmann JG, Dearmond SJ, Carlson GA, Hood LE. A systems approach to prion disease. Mol Syst Biol 2009; 5:252. [PMID: 19308092 PMCID: PMC2671916 DOI: 10.1038/msb.2009.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 211] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2008] [Accepted: 01/20/2009] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Prions cause transmissible neurodegenerative diseases and replicate by conformational conversion of normal benign forms of prion protein (PrPC) to disease-causing PrPSc isoforms. A systems approach to disease postulates that disease arises from perturbation of biological networks in the relevant organ. We tracked global gene expression in the brains of eight distinct mouse strain–prion strain combinations throughout the progression of the disease to capture the effects of prion strain, host genetics, and PrP concentration on disease incubation time. Subtractive analyses exploiting various aspects of prion biology and infection identified a core of 333 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that appeared central to prion disease. DEGs were mapped into functional pathways and networks reflecting defined neuropathological events and PrPSc replication and accumulation, enabling the identification of novel modules and modules that may be involved in genetic effects on incubation time and in prion strain specificity. Our systems analysis provides a comprehensive basis for developing models for prion replication and disease, and suggests some possible therapeutic approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daehee Hwang
- Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA 98103, USA
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29
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Spires TL, Orne JD, SantaCruz K, Pitstick R, Carlson GA, Ashe KH, Hyman BT. Region-specific dissociation of neuronal loss and neurofibrillary pathology in a mouse model of tauopathy. Am J Pathol 2006; 168:1598-607. [PMID: 16651626 PMCID: PMC1606598 DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2006.050840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 296] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Neurofibrillary tangles form in a specific spatial and temporal pattern in Alzheimer's disease. Although tangle formation correlates with dementia and neuronal loss, it remains unknown whether neurofibrillary pathology causes cell death. Recently, a mouse model of tauopathy was developed that reversibly expresses human tau with the dementia-associated P301L mutation. This model (rTg4510) exhibits progressive behavioral deficits that are ameliorated with transgene suppression. Using quantitative analysis of PHF1 immunostaining and neuronal counts, we estimated neuron number and accumulation of neurofibrillary pathology in five brain regions. Accumulation of PHF1-positive tau in neurons appeared between 2.5 and 7 months of age in a region-specific manner and increased with age. Neuron loss was dramatic and region-specific in these mice, reaching over 80% loss in hippocampal area CA1 and dentate gyrus by 8.5 months. We observed regional dissociation of neuronal loss and accumulation of neurofibrillary pathology, because there was loss of neurons before neurofibrillary lesions appeared in the dentate gyrus and, conversely, neurofibrillary pathology appeared without major cell loss in the striatum. Finally, suppressing the transgene prevented further neuronal loss without removing or preventing additional accumulation of neurofibrillary pathology. Together, these results imply that neurofibrillary tangles do not necessarily lead to neuronal death.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tara L Spires
- Department of Neurology, MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown 02129, USA.
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30
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Abstract
Only a few cell lines have been infected with prions, offering limited genetic diversity and sensitivity to several strains. Here we report that cultured neurospheres expressing cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) can be infected with prions. Neurosphere lines isolated from the brains of mice at embryonic day 13-15 grow as aggregates and contain CNS stem cells. We produced neurosphere cultures from FVB/NCr (FVB) mice, from transgenic (Tg) FVB mice that overexpress mouse PrP-A (Tg4053), and from congenic FVB mice with a targeted null mutation in the PrP gene (Prnp(0/0)) and incubated them with the Rocky Mountain Laboratory prion strain. While monitoring the levels of disease-causing PrP (PrP(Sc)) at each passage, we observed a dramatic rise in PrP(Sc) levels with time in the Tg4053 neurosphere cells, whereas the level of PrP(Sc) decayed to undetectable levels in cell cultures lacking PrP. PrP(Sc) levels in cultures from FVB mice initially declined but then increased with passage. Prions produced in culture were transmissible to mice and produced disease pathology. Intracellular aggregates of PrP(Sc) were present in cells from infected cultures. The susceptibility of neurosphere cultures to prions mirrored that of the mice from which they were derived. Neurosphere lines from Tg4053 mice provide a sensitive in vitro bioassay for mouse prions; neurosphere lines from other Tg mice overexpressing PrP might be used to assay prions from other species, including humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ranjit K. Giri
- *McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405; and
| | - Rebecca Young
- *McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405; and
| | - Rose Pitstick
- *McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405; and
| | | | - Stanley B. Prusiner
- Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease and Departments of
- Neurology, and
- Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143
- To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail:
or
| | - George A. Carlson
- *McLaughlin Research Institute, Great Falls, MT 59405; and
- To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail:
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Park L, Anrather J, Zhou P, Frys K, Pitstick R, Younkin S, Carlson GA, Iadecola C. NADPH-oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species mediate the cerebrovascular dysfunction induced by the amyloid beta peptide. J Neurosci 2005; 25:1769-77. [PMID: 15716413 PMCID: PMC6725936 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5207-04.2005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 190] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Overproduction of the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide is a key factor in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the mechanisms of its pathogenic effects have not been defined. Patients with AD have cerebrovascular alterations attributable to the deleterious effects of Abeta on cerebral blood vessels. We report here that NADPH oxidase, the major source of free radicals in blood vessels, is responsible for the cerebrovascular dysregulation induced by Abeta. Thus, the free-radical production and the associated alterations in vasoregulation induced by Abeta are abrogated by the NADPH oxidase peptide inhibitor gp91ds-tat and are not observed in mice lacking the catalytic subunit of NADPH oxidase (gp91phox). Furthermore, oxidative stress and cerebrovascular dysfunction do not occur in transgenic mice overexpressing the amyloid precursor protein but lacking gp91phox. The mechanisms by which NADPH oxidase-derived radicals mediate the cerebrovascular dysfunction involve reduced bioavailability of nitric oxide. Thus, a gp91phox-containing NADPH oxidase is the critical link between Abeta and cerebrovascular dysfunction, which may underlie the alteration in cerebral blood flow regulation observed in AD patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laibaik Park
- Division of Neurobiology, Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York 10021, USA
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Krezowski J, Knudson D, Ebeling C, Pitstick R, Giri RK, Schenk D, Westaway D, Younkin L, Younkin SG, Ashe KH, Carlson GA. Identification of loci determining susceptibility to the lethal effects of amyloid precursor protein transgene overexpression. Hum Mol Genet 2004; 13:1989-97. [PMID: 15254013 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddh210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Phenotypes produced by expression of human amyloid precursor protein (APP) transgenes vary depending on the genetic background of the mouse. FVB/N mice overexpressing human APP695 develop a central nervous system disorder and die prematurely, precluding development of Abeta peptide amyloid plaques. 129S6 mice are resistant to the lethal effects of APP overexpression, allowing sufficient levels of Abeta expression for the development of amyloid plaques and age-dependent memory deficits. To identify the genes that determine susceptibility or resistance to APP we analyzed crosses involving FVB/NCr and 129S6.Tg2576 mice that overexpress 'Swedish' mutant (K670N, M671L) APP695. APP transgene-positive FVB129S6F1 (F1) mice are resistant to the lethal effects of APP overexpression, so FVBxF1 backcross and F2 intercross offspring were produced. Analysis of age of death as a quantitative trait revealed significant linkage to loci on proximal chromosome 14 and on chromosome 9; 129S6 alleles protect against the lethal effects of APP. Within the chromosome 14 interval are segments homologous to regions on human chromosome 10 that have been linked to late onset Alzheimer's disease or to levels of Abeta peptide in plasma. However, analysis of plasma Abeta peptide concentrations at 6 weeks in backcross offspring produced no significant linkage. Similarly, elevation of human Abeta peptide concentrations by expression of mutant presenilin transgenes did not increase the proportion of mice dying prematurely, suggesting that early death reflects effects of APP or fragments other than Abeta.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Krezowski
- McLaughlin Research Institute, 1520 23rd Street South, Great Falls, MT 59405, USA
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