Non-Mutated Human Tau Stimulates Alzheimer’s Disease-Relevant Neurodegeneration in a Microglia-Dependent Manner
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ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJNA1207025 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
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Project description:The accumulation of abnormal, non-mutated tau protein is a key pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Despite its strong association with disease progression, the mechanisms by which tau drives neurodegeneration in the intact brain remain poorly understood. Here, we selectively expressed non-mutated or mutated MAPT in neurons across the brain and observed neurodegeneration in the hippocampus, especially associated with non-mutated human tau. Single-nuclei RNA sequencing confirmed a selective loss of hippocampal excitatory neurons and revealed the upregulation of neurodegeneration-related pathways in the affected populations. The accumulation of phosphorylated tau was accompanied by cellular stress in neurons and reactive gliosis in multiple brain regions. Notably, the lifelong absence of microglia significantly and differentially influenced the extent of neurodegeneration in the hippocampus and thalamus. Therefore, our study established an AD-relevant tauopathy mouse model, elucidated both neuron-intrinsic and neuron-extrinsic responses, and highlighted a critical role for microglia in modulating tau-driven neurodegeneration.
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Project description:The accumulation of abnormal, non-mutated tau protein is a key pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite its strong association with disease progression, the mechanisms by which tau drives neurodegeneration in the brain remain poorly understood. Here, we selectively expressed non-mutated or mutated human microtubule-associated protein tau (hMAPT) in neurons across the brain and observed neurodegeneration in the hippocampus, especially associated with non-mutated human tau. Single-nuclei RNA sequencing confirmed a selective loss of hippocampal excitatory neurons by the wild-type tau and revealed the upregulation of neurodegeneration-related pathways in the affected populations. The accumulation of phosphorylated tau was accompanied by cellular stress in neurons and reactive gliosis in multiple brain regions. Notably, the lifelong absence of microglia significantly and differentially influenced the extent of neurodegeneration in the hippocampus and thalamus. Therefore, our study established an AD-relevant tauopathy mouse model, elucidated both neuronintrinsic and neuron-extrinsic responses, and highlighted critical and complex roles of microglia in modulating tau-driven neurodegeneration.
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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.
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Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of neurodegeneration. Despite the well-established link between tau aggregation and clinical progression, the major pathways driven by this protein to intrinsically damage neurons are incompletely understood. To model AD-relevant neurodegeneration driven by tau, we overexpressed non-mutated human tau in primary mouse neurons and observed substantial axonal degeneration and cell death, a process accompanied by activated caspase 3. Mechanistically, we detected deformation of the nuclear envelope and increased DNA damage response in tau-expressing neurons. Gene profiling analysis further revealed significant alterations in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway; moreover, inhibitors of dual leucine zipper kinase (DLK) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) were effective in alleviating wild-type human tau-induced neurodegeneration. In contrast, mutant P301L human tau was less toxic to neurons, despite causing comparable DNA damage. Axonal DLK activation induced by wild-type tau potentiated the impact of DNA damage response, resulting in overt neurotoxicity. In summary, we have established a cellular tauopathy model highly relevant to AD and identified a functional synergy between the MAPK-DLK axis and DNA damage response in the neuronal degenerative process.
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Project description:Tau aggregates lead to progressive neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (ref). Neuron death is one of the hallmarks of neurodegeneration (ref). However, the pathological influence of neuronal death is undetermined, and the connection between Tau aggregates and neuronal death remains elusive. Here we demonstrated the essential role of neuron death in Tau-related neurodegeneration. Tau-neurons died in necroptosis, dependent on ZBP1 sensitized by Z-RNAs (an unusual left-handed conformation). Those endogenous Z-RNAs were transcripts of reactivated transposable elements (TEs) originally silenced in heterochromatin.
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Project description:Tau aggregates lead to progressive neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Neuron death is one of the hallmarks of neurodegeneration.However, the pathological influence of neuronal death is undetermined, and the connection between Tau aggregates and neuronal death remains elusive. Here we demonstrated the essential role of neuron death in Tau-related neurodegeneration. Tau-neurons died in necroptosis, dependent on ZBP1 sensitized by Z-RNAs (an unusual left-handed conformation). Those endogenous Z-RNAs were transcripts of reactivated transposable elements (TEs) originally silenced in heterochromatin.
2023-11-22 | GSE248069 | GEO
Project description:There are changes in adaptive immunity in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and increases in activated CD8 T cells in brain correlate with tau pathology. However, which cells mediate T cell priming in tau-mediated neurodegeneration remains unclear. In different conditions such as cancer, viral infections, and autoimmune diseases outside the CNS, conventional type-1 dendritic cells (cDC1) perform antigen cross-presentation to prime CD8 T cells. We demonstrate that tauopathy mice deficient in cDC1 are markedly protected against tau-mediated neurodegeneration and display a selective decrease in brain CD8 T cell infiltration and glial reactivity. The remaining CD8 T cells showed an antigen inexperienced status with less clonal expansion, indicating suboptimal T cell priming. We confirm that brain derived antigens are presented in the secondary lymphoid tissues to prime CD8 T cells. Our study identifies cDC1 as critical for CD8 T cell priming outside of the CNS. This priming is required for a large increase in activated CD8 T cells in the brain which promotes tau-mediated neurodegeneration.
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Project description:TREM2, a microglia-specific receptor, is strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk and modulates microglial responses critical to AD pathogenesis. However, its role in tauopathy and neurodegeneration remains unclear. Here, by using a PS19 tauopathy mouse model with inducible overexpression of human wild-type TREM2 (TREM2-WT) or the R47H variant (TREM2-R47H), we show that TREM2-WT overexpression modestly reduces soluble phosphorylated tau (p-tau) levels and mildly preserves neuronal integrity, whereas TREM2-R47H fails to impact p-tau levels or neurodegeneration. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that TREM2-WT enhances disease-associated microglia (DAM) signatures, while TREM2-R47H drives the MHCII+ microglial phenotypes. These findings demonstrate that TREM2-WT confers modest benefits in tauopathy models, whereas TREM2-R47H exhibits reduced functionality. Our study underscores the therapeutic potential of enhancing TREM2 activity to modulate microglial responses and mitigate neurodegeneration in AD.
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Project description:We performed H3K9me2-based ChIP-seq to identify regions of the Drosophila genome that are H3K9me2-depleted due to transgenic neuronal expression of human mutant tau. Examination of H3K9me2 histone methylation in 10 day old control and tau transgenic Drosophila heads.
2013-12-31 | E-GEOD-53719 | biostudies-arrayexpress