Project description:Extracellular senile plaques of amyloid beta (Abeta) are a pathological hallmark in brain of patients with Alzheimer`s Disease (AD). Abeta is generated by the amyloidogenic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Concomitant to Abeta load, AD brain is characterized by an increase in protein level and activity of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). ACE inhibitors are a widely used class of drugs with established benefits for patients with cardiovascular disease. However, the role of ACE and ACE inhibition in the development of Abeta plaques and the process of AD-related neurodegeneration is not clear since ACE was reported to degrade Abeta. To investigate the effect of ACE inhibition on AD-related pathomechanisms, we used Tg2576 mice with neuron-specific expression of APPSwe as AD model. From 12 months of age, substantial Abeta plaque load accumulates in the hippocampus of Tg2576 mice as a brain region, which is highly vulnerable to AD-related neurodegeneration. The effect of central ACE inhibition was studied by treatment of 12 month-old Tg2576 mice for six months with the brain penetrating ACE inhibitor captopril. At an age of 18 months, hippocampal gene expression profiling was performed of captopril-treated Tg2576 mice relative to untreated 18 month-old Tg2576 controls with high Abeta plaque load. As an additional control, we used 12 month-old Tg2576 mice with low Abeta plaque load. Whole genome microarray gene expression profiling revealed gene expression changes induced by the brain-penetrating ACE inhibitor captopril, which could reflect the neuro-regenerative potential of central ACE inhibition. Microarray gene expression profiling was performed of hippocampi isolated from aged, 18 month-old Tg2576 (APPSwe-transgenic) AD mice with high Abeta plaque load relative to age-matched Tg2576 mice, which were treated for 6 months with the centrally active ACE inhibitor captopril. Another study group consisted of 12 month-old Tg2576 mice with low Abeta plaque load. In total, three study groups were analyzed, i.e. (i) 18 month-old untreated Tg2576 mice with high Abeta plaque load, (ii) age-matched Tg2576 mice treated for 6 months with the brain-penetrating ACE inhibitor captopril (20 mg/kg body weight/day in drinking water), and (iii) untreated 12 month-old Tg2576 mice with low Abeta plaque load reflecting the time point when captopril treatment was initiated. Two biological replicates were made of each group, and total hippocampal RNA of four mice was pooled for one gene chip.

Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major neurodegenerative disease characterized by extracellular amyloid β (Aβ) plaques and intracellular hyperphosphorylated tau (P-tau). Increasing evidence indicates that extracellular vesicles (EVs) play an important role in AD pathogenesis. We previously reported that the choroid plexus epithelial (CPE) cells, present at the interface between blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), show increased secretion of EVs into the CSF in response to peripheral inflammation. Here, we studied the importance of CP-derived EVs in AD pathogenesis. We observed increased EV levels in the CSF of 7 weeks old transgenic APP/PS1 mice, correlating with higher Aβ CSF levels at this age, while levels normalized with age. To study whether the elevated Aβ CSF levels might be responsible for this increase, mice were intracerebroventricularly (icv) injected with Aβ oligomers (AβO) which revealed a significant increase in the amount of CD9 and CD81 positive EVs in the CSF. The importance of the CPE cells as EV source was shown by in vitro analysis of AβO stimulated primary CPE cells and in vivo analysis of the CP by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Evaluation of EV marker immunostaining, both from AβO icv injected mice and APP/PS1 mice, confirmed the upregulation of EV biogenesis in the CP. Interestingly, AβO-induced, CP-derived EVs induced pro-inflammatory effects in mixed cortical cultures (MCC) whereas proteome analysis revealed the presence of complement protein C3, amongst other inflammatory proteins. Additionally, we could show for the first time that AβO induce an upregulation of C3 in CPE cells. These data highlight the CP and CP-derived, C3-containing EVs as novel players in the emerging importance of the complement pathway in the pathogenesis of AD. Strikingly, inhibition of EV production using GW4869 resulted in protection against the AβO-induced cognitive decline. In conclusion, our results show that intraventricular AβO induce both C3 activation and EV secretion by the CP and that these EVs contain pro-inflammatory molecules, including C3, which play a role in neuroinflammation and loss of cognition. This suggests that inhibition of EV production by the CP might be an interesting therapeutic approach to be explored in the prevention or treatment of AD.

Project description:Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. So far, there is no effective treatment for this condition. Tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) is an alkaloid extracted from traditional Chinese medicine chuanxiong, which is mainly used in the treatment of ischemic stroke some related diseases. In this study, we studied the potential effects of TMP on AD progression by using two AD mouse models. 8-month-old 3xTg-AD mice received TMP treatment (10mg/kg/d) for 1 month, and 4-month-old APP/PS1-AD mice received TMP treatment (10mg/kg/d) for 2 months. The behavioral tests by step-down passive avoidance test (SDA), new object recognition (NOR) and Morris water maze (MWM) showed that TMP significantly improved the learning and memory impairment of two AD transgenic mice. In addition, TMP reduced Aß levels and tau phosphorylation. Venny analysis showed that 116 differentially expressed proteins were commonly changed in 3xTg mice vs WT mice and TMP treated mice vs untreated mice. The same, 130 differentially expressed proteins were commonly changed in APP/PS1 mice vs WT mice and TMP treated mice vs untreated mice. The functions of the common proteins modified by TMP in the two models were mainly related to mitochondrial function, synaptic function, cytoskeleton, GTP binding, ATP binding. Mitochondrial omics analysis revealed 21 and 20 differentially expressed mitochondrial proteins modified by TMP in 3xTg-AD mice and APP/PS1 mice, respectively. These differential proteins were located in mitochondrial inner membrane, mitochondrial outer membrane, mitochondrial gap and mitochondrial matrix, and the function of some proteins is closely related to oxidative phosphorylation of (OXPHOS). Western-blot further validated that TMP changed the expression of OXPHOS complex proteins (sdhb, ndufa10, uqcrfs1, cox5b, atp5a) in the hippocampus of the two AD mice. Taken together, our study demonstrated that TMP improved the cognitive impairment and AD-like pathology, and modified hippocampal proteome in the two AD mice models. The improvement of the behavioral and pathology might be associated with modification of mitochondrial protein profile by TMP. Our study suggested that TMP had the potential for the treatment of AD.

Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic ageing related neurodegenerative disease which is characterized by loss of synapses and neurons in the vulnerable brain regions. Expression perturbations of amyloid β (Aβ) and tau protein in the brain are two hallmarks of AD. Aβ is abnormally generated from amyloid precursor protein (APP) which is broadly distributed in different brain regions including the hippocampus and cortex. It is believed that increased Aβ expression plays a causative role in the early stage of AD pathology. Aβ protein interacts with the signaling pathways that control the phosphorylation of the microtubule-associated protein tau, which eventually disrupts the neuronal circuitry as well as network connectivity leading to neurodegenerative processes observed in AD. In addition, substantial molecular and neurodegenerative changes occur in the initial stage of AD even before the cognitive symptoms are evident, which makes the early diagnosis of AD vital to any timely disease stabilization and treatment. However, despite myriad efforts and substantial progress in the field to decipher the molecular mechanisms of disease onset and its progression, specific causes underlying AD pathology remain ill-defined. There is an urgent need to identify novel mechanism based interventional approaches that can stop, or slow down, the progression of AD. Therefore, it is important to improve the knowledge of the early AD and have a better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms induced by Aβ. In this study, we performed comparative quantitative proteomics on different brain regions of 2.5 months old APP/PS1 mice (hippocampus, frontal cortex, parietal cortex and cerebellum) in order to investigate the early stage impact of AD. Although over 5000 proteins were identified in all regions, the proteome response across regions was greatly varied. As expected, the greatest proteome perturbation was detected in the hippocampus and frontal cortex (AD-susceptible brain regions), compared to only 155 changed proteins in the cerebellum (less vulnerable region to AD). Increased expression of APP protein was identified in all brain regions. The expression of the majority of the other proteins between hippocampus and cortex areas was not similar, highlighting differential effects of the disease on different brain regions. A series of AD associated markers and pathways were identified as overexpressed in the hippocampus including glutamatergic synapse, GABAergic synapse, retrograde endocannabinoid signaling, long-term potentiation, and calcium signaling. In contrast, the expression of same proteins and pathways was negatively regulated in frontal and parietal cortex regions. Additionally, an increased expression of proteins associated with the oxidative phosphorylation pathway in hippocampus was not evident in the two cortices. Interestingly, an increased expression of proteins involved with myelination, neurofilament cytoskeleton organization, and glutathione metabolism was identified in cortex areas, while these were reduced in the hippocampus. The results obtained from this study highlight important information on brain region specific protein expression changes occurring in the early stages of AD.

Dataset Information

Olfactory bulb proteome characterization in APP/PS1 mice

Publications

An early dysregulation of FAK and MEK/ERK signaling pathways precedes the β-amyloid deposition in the olfactory bulb of APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

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