Project description:Sex is a key modifier of neurological disease outcomes. Microglia are implicated in neurological diseases and modulated by miRNAs, but it is unknown whether microglial miRNAs have sex-specific influences on disease. We show that microglial miRNA expression differs in males and females, and loss of miRNAs leads to sex-specific changes in the microglial transcriptome and to tau pathology. These findings suggest microglial miRNAs influence tau pathogenesis in a sex-specific manner.
Project description:Sex is a key modifier of neurological disease outcomes. Microglia are implicated in neurological diseases and modulated by miRNAs, but it is unknown whether microglial miRNAs have sex-specific influences on disease. We show that microglial miRNA expression differs in males and females, and loss of miRNAs leads to sex-specific changes in the microglial transcriptome and to tau pathology. These findings suggest microglial miRNAs influence tau pathogenesis in a sex-specific manner.
Project description:Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by a sequential progression of amyloid plaques (A), neurofibrillary tangles (T) and neurodegeneration (N), constituting ATN pathology. While microglia are considered key contributors to AD pathogenesis, their contribution in the combined presence of ATN pathologies remains incompletely understood. As sensors of the brain microenvironment, microglial phenotypes and contributions are importantly defined by the pathologies in the brain, indicating the need for their analysis in preclinical models that recapitulate combined ATN pathologies, besides their role in A and T models only. Here, we report a new tau-seed model in which amyloid pathology facilitates bilateral tau propagation associated with brain atrophy, thereby recapitulating robust ATN pathology. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that ATN pathology exacerbated microglial activation towards disease-associated microglia (DAM) states, with a significant upregulation of Apoe as compared to amyloid-only models (A). Importantly, Colony-Stimulating Factor 1 Receptor inhibition preferentially eliminated non-plaque-associated versus plaque associated microglia. The preferential depletion of non-plaque-associated microglia significantly attenuated tau pathology and neuronal atrophy, indicating their detrimental role during ATN progression. Together, our data reveal the intricacies of microglial activation and their contributions to pathology in a model that recapitulates the combined ATN pathologies of Alzheimer's disease. Our data may provide a basis for microglia-targeting therapies selectively targeting detrimental microglial populations, while conserving protective populations.
Project description:Activation of microglia is a prominent pathological feature in tauopathies, including Alzheimer’s disease. How microglia activation contributes to tau toxicity remains largely unknown. Here we show that nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) signaling, activated by tau, drives microglial-mediated tau propagation and toxicity. Constitutive activation of microglial NF-κB exacerbated, while inactivation diminished, tau seeding and spreading in young PS19 mice. Inhibition of NF-B activation enhanced the retention while reduced the release of internalized pathogenic tau fibrils from primary microglia and rescued microglial autophagy deficits. Remarkably, inhibition of microglial NF-κB in aged PS19 mice rescued tau-mediated learning and memory deficits, restored overall transcriptomic changes while increasing neuronal tau inclusions. Single cell RNA-seq revealed that tau-associated disease states in microglia were diminished by NF-B inactivation and further transformed by constitutive NF-B activation. Our study establishes a central role for microglial NF-B signaling in mediating tau spreading and toxicity in tauopathy.
Project description:Activation of microglia is a prominent pathological feature in tauopathies, including Alzheimer’s disease. How microglia activation contributes to tau toxicity remains largely unknown. Here we show that nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) signaling, activated by tau, drives microglial-mediated tau propagation and toxicity. Constitutive activation of microglial NF-κB exacerbated, while inactivation diminished, tau seeding and spreading in young PS19 mice. Inhibition of NF-B activation enhanced the retention while reduced the release of internalized pathogenic tau fibrils from primary microglia and rescued microglial autophagy deficits. Remarkably, inhibition of microglial NF-κB in aged PS19 mice rescued tau-mediated learning and memory deficits, restored overall transcriptomic changes while increasing neuronal tau inclusions. Single cell RNA-seq revealed that tau-associated disease states in microglia were diminished by NF-B inactivation and further transformed by constitutive NF-B activation. Our study establishes a central role for microglial NF-B signaling in mediating tau spreading and toxicity in tauopathy.
Project description:Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is characterized by the abnormal accumulation of amyloid plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau aggregates, as well as microgliosis. The link between mutations in Triggering Receptor Expressed on Myeloid Cells 2 (TREM2), a microglia-expressed gene, and the increased risk for developing late-onset AD suggests a detrimental role for microglia in disease pathophyioslogy. Hemizygous TREM2 mutations are posited to increase risk for AD through loss-of-function haploinsufficiency. The effects of TREM2 haploinsufficiency on tau pathology and tau-associated deficits have not yet been characterized. Using in vivo imaging, we showed that TREM2 haploinsufficiency, but not complete loss of TREM2, resulted in a striking agedependent impairment in microglia’s response to injury without affecting baseline motility. This TREM2-dependent effect on microglial motility is consistent with transcriptomic alterations in cell motility uncovered with unbiased RNAsequencing analysis. Moreover, TREM2 haploinsufficiency, but not complete loss of TREM2, exacerbated phosphorylated tau pathology in transgenic mice expressing mutant human tau. In addition, TREM2 haploinsufficiency increased tau inclusions and tau-mediated inflammation without further exacerbating neuronal loss. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that TREM2 haploinsufficiency induces deficits in a tauopathy mouse model, supporting the notion that the hemizygous missense variant results in loss-of-function.
Project description:APOE is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. ApoE exacerbates tau-associated neurodegeneration by driving microglial activation. However, how apoE regulates microglial activation and whether targeting apoE is therapeutically beneficial in tauopathy is unclear. Here we show that overexpressing a low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) transgene in P301S tau transgenic mice markedly reduces brain apoE and ameliorates tau pathology and neurodegeneration. ApoE specifically interacts with a high-molecular-weight tau species, and highly correlates with phospho-tau and insoluble tau levels. Microglial expression of the LDLR transgene reduces intracellular apoE and is associated with less microglial activation. snRNA-seq analysis of apoE-deficient or LDLR-overexpressing brains reveals that apoE deficiency drives microglial catabolism and increases the oligodendrocyte progenitor cell population. LDLR overexpression shares overlapping mechanisms, but uniquely upregulates microglial expression of specific ion channels and neurotransmitter receptors in tauopathy. A subset of disease-associated astrocytes with both neuroprotective and neurotoxic gene signatures is also identified.
Project description:In addition to tau and Aβ pathologies, inflammation plays an important role in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Variants in APOE and TREM2 increase AD risk. ApoE4 exacerbates tau-linked neurodegeneration and inflammation in P301S tau mice and removal of microglia blocks tau-dependent neurodegeneration. Microglia adopt a heterogeneous population of transcriptomic states in response to pathology, at least some of which are dependent on TREM2. Previously, we reported that knockout (KO) of TREM2 attenuated neurodegeneration in P301S mice that express mouse Apoe. Because of the possible common pathway of ApoE and TREM2 in AD, we tested whether TREM2 KO (T2KO) would block neurodegeneration in P301S Tau mice expressing ApoE4 (TE4), similar to that observed with microglial depletion. Surprisingly, we observed exacerbated neurodegeneration and tau pathology in TE4-T2KO versus TE4 mice, despite decreased TREM2-dependent microgliosis. Our results suggest that tau pathology-dependent microgliosis, that is, TREM2-independent microgliosis, facilitates tau-mediated neurodegeneration in the presence of ApoE4.