Project description:Clusterin (CLU) is one of the most significant genetic risk factors for late onset Alzheimer’s disease. Numerous studies have now demonstrated that CLU-AD mutations and amyloid-β (Aβ) treatment alter the trafficking and localisation of glycosylated CLU. iPSCs with altered CLU trafficking were generated following the removal of CLU exon 2 by CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. Neurons were generated from control, unedited and exon 2 -/- iPSCs and were incubated with aggregated Aβ peptides. Changes in cell death and neurite length were quantified to determine if altered CLU protein trafficking influenced neuronal sensitivity to Aβ.
Project description:Amyloid beta 42 (Abeta42) is the principal trigger of neurodegeneration during Alzheimer’s disease (AD); however, the etiology of Abeta42 toxicity remains elusive. In a proteomic approach using a yeast model for intracellular Abeta42 toxicity, we here identify the HSP40 family member Ydj1, the yeast orthologue of human DnaJA1, as a crucial factor in Abeta42-mediated toxicity.
Project description:Complement protein C1q is induced after injury in the brain and during Alzheimer's disease and has been shown to protect against amyloid-beta induced neuronal death. In this study, we used microarray approach to identify the pathways modulated by C1q that are associated with neuroprotection. Immature rat cortical primary neurons are treated with fibrillar amyloid-beta peptides and/or C1q for 3h before RNA extraction and hybridization on rat Affymetrix microarrays. Supplementary file: Processed/normalized, probe-level signal intensities from neurons treated with amyloid-beta or C1q. Median signal intensity used as global normalization method, done with JMP genomics (v5.0) software.
Project description:Transgenic animals were engineered to express human amyloid peptide controlled by a muscle-specific, heat-inducible promoter. At low temperatures (16°C) Abeta expression is minimal, while at higher temperatures (20-25°C) Abeta accummulates in large quantities and causes paralysis. GFP- and GFP::degron (a toxic aggregating GFP mutant)-expressing animals were used as controls. Animals were grown at 16°C till early 3rd larval stage and then upshifted to 25°C. Animals were harvested at the time of upshift (T0), and every 4 hours later until 20 hours postupshift (T4-T20).
Project description:Transgenic animals were engineered to express human amyloid peptide controlled by a muscle-specific, heat-inducible promoter. At low temperatures (16°C) Abeta expression is minimal, while at higher temperatures (20-25°C) Abeta accummulates in large quantities and causes paralysis. GFP- and GFP::degron (a toxic aggregating GFP mutant)-expressing animals were used as controls.
Project description:ATP6V1A plays a unique role in synapse function in neurons and we found decreased neuronal activity in ATP6V1A-deficient neurons. To characterize the molecular pathways regulated by ATP6V1A under both normal and stressed conditions, we generated hiPSC-derived NGN2-neurons with reduced ATP6V1A expression by CRISPRi knock-down (KD) and performed RNA-seq analysis on the wild-type and KD neurons which were subject to amyloid-beta or vehicle treatment. A number of gene ontology (GO)/pathways were identified in KD neurons without amyloid-beta treatment (proton transporting V-ATPase complex, phagosome acidification and trivalent inorganic cation transport were down-regulated, and mitochondrial protein complex up-regulated), while KD in amyloid-beta treated cells specifically resulted in down-regulation of cell adhesion, synapse assembly and structure/activity and up-regulation of UPR and ER stress response.
Project description:Complement protein C1q is induced after injury in the brain and during Alzheimer's disease and has been shown to protect against amyloid-beta induced neuronal death. In this study, we used microarray approach to identify the pathways modulated by C1q that are associated with neuroprotection.