Proteopathic tau seeding predicts tauopathy in vivo Holmes, Brandon B; Furman, Jennifer L; Mahan, Thomas E ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
10/2014, Letnik:
111, Številka:
41
Journal Article
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Transcellular propagation of protein aggregates, or proteopathic seeds, may drive the progression of neurodegenerative diseases in a prion-like manner. In tauopathies such as Alzheimer’s disease, ...this model predicts that tau seeds propagate pathology through the brain via cell–cell transfer in neural networks. The critical role of tau seeding activity is untested, however. It is unknown whether seeding anticipates and correlates with subsequent development of pathology as predicted for a causal agent. One major limitation has been the lack of a robust assay to measure proteopathic seeding activity in biological specimens. We engineered an ultrasensitive, specific, and facile FRET-based flow cytometry biosensor assay based on expression of tau or synuclein fusions to CFP and YFP, and confirmed its sensitivity and specificity to tau (∼300 fM) and synuclein (∼300 pM) fibrils. This assay readily discriminates Alzheimer’s disease vs. Huntington's disease and aged control brains. We then carried out a detailed time-course study in P301S tauopathy mice, comparing seeding activity versus histological markers of tau pathology, including MC1, AT8, PG5, and Thioflavin S. We detected robust seeding activity at 1.5 mo, >1 mo before the earliest histopathological stain. Proteopathic tau seeding is thus an early and robust marker of tauopathy, suggesting a proximal role for tau seeds in neurodegeneration.
Significance Prion-like propagation of proteopathic seeds may underlie the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, including the tauopathies and synucleinopathies. We aimed to construct a versatile and simple cell assay to sensitively and specifically detect proteopathic seeding activity. Using a combination of FRET flow cytometry and a tau monoclonal FRET biosensor cell line, we report seed detection in the femtomolar range. This assay is easily applied to human brain homogenates and selectively responds to Alzheimer's disease but not Huntington's disease brains. By comparing seeding activity in a mouse model of human tauopathy, we demonstrate detection of proteopathic seeding far in advance of standard histopathological markers. Proteopathic seeding is thus an early marker of tauopathy, consistent with a causal role for tau seeds in neurodegeneration.
The aggregation and deposition of α-synuclein (αS) are major pathologic features of Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other α-synucleinopathies. The propagation of αS pathology in ...the brain plays a key role in the onset and progression of clinical phenotypes. Thus, there is increasing interest in developing strategies that attenuate αS aggregation and propagation. Based on cumulative evidence that αS oligomers are neurotoxic and critical species in the pathogenesis of α-synucleinopathies, we and other groups reported that phenolic compounds inhibit αS aggregation including oligomerization, thereby ameliorating αS oligomer-induced cellular and synaptic toxicities. Heterogeneity in gut microbiota may influence the efficacy of dietary polyphenol metabolism. Our recent studies on the brain-penetrating polyphenolic acids 3-hydroxybenzoic acid (3-HBA), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (3,4-diHBA), and 3-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (3-HPPA), which are derived from gut microbiota-based metabolism of dietary polyphenols, demonstrated an in vitro ability to inhibit αS oligomerization and mediate aggregated αS-induced neurotoxicity. Additionally, 3-HPPA, 3,4-diHBA, 3-HBA, and 4-hydroxybenzoic acid significantly attenuated intracellular αS seeding aggregation in a cell-based system. This review focuses on recent research developments regarding neuroprotective properties, especially anti-αS aggregation effects, of phenolic compounds and their metabolites by the gut microbiome, including our findings in the pathogenesis of α-synucleinopathies.
Neural stem cell (NSC) transplantation represents an unexplored approach for treating neurodegenerative disorders associated with cognitive decline such as Alzheimer disease (AD). Here, we used aged ...triple transgenic mice (3xTg-AD) that express pathogenic forms of amyloid precursor protein, presenilin, and tau to investigate the effect of neural stem cell transplantation on AD-related neuropathology and cognitive dysfunction. Interestingly, despite widespread and established Ass plaque and neurofibrillary tangle pathology, hippocampal neural stem cell transplantation rescues the spatial learning and memory deficits in aged 3xTg-AD mice. Remarkably, cognitive function is improved without altering Ass or tau pathology. Instead, the mechanism underlying the improved cognition involves a robust enhancement of hippocampal synaptic density, mediated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Gain-of-function studies show that recombinant BDNF mimics the beneficial effects of NSC transplantation. Furthermore, loss-of-function studies show that depletion of NSC-derived BDNF fails to improve cognition or restore hippocampal synaptic density. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that neural stem cells can ameliorate complex behavioral deficits associated with widespread Alzheimer disease pathology via BDNF.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) are distinct clinical syndromes characterized by the pathological accumulation of α-synuclein (α-syn) protein fibrils in neurons and glial ...cells. These disorders and other neurodegenerative diseases may progress via prion-like mechanisms. The prion model of propagation predicts the existence of “strains” that link pathological aggregate structure and neuropathology. Prion strains are aggregated conformers that stably propagate in vivo and cause disease with defined incubation times and patterns of neuropathology. Indeed, tau prions have been well defined, and research suggests that both α-syn and β-amyloid may also form strains. However, there is a lack of studies characterizing PD- versus MSA-derived α-syn strains or demonstrating stable propagation of these unique conformers between cells or animals. To fill this gap, we used an assay based on FRET that exploits a HEK293T “biosensor” cell line stably expressing α-syn (A53T)-CFP/YFP fusion proteins to detect α-syn seeds in brain extracts from PD and MSA patients. Both soluble and insoluble fractions of MSA extracts had robust seeding activity, whereas only the insoluble fractions of PD extracts displayed seeding activity. The morphology of MSA-seeded inclusions differed from PD-seeded inclusions. These differences persisted upon propagation of aggregation to second-generation biosensor cells. We conclude that PD and MSA feature α-syn conformers with very distinct biochemical properties that can be transmitted to α-syn monomers in a cell system. These findings are consistent with the idea that distinct α-syn strains underlie PD and MSA and offer possible directions for synucleinopathy diagnosis.
Inflammation is a critical component of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although not an initiator of this disorder, inflammation nonetheless plays a pivotal role as a driving force that ...can modulate the neuropathology. Here, we characterized the time course of microglia activation in the brains of a transgenic model of AD (3xTg-AD) and discerned its relationship to the plaque and tangle pathology. We find that microglia became activated in a progressive and age-dependent manner, and this activation correlated with the onset of fibrillar amyloidbeta-peptide plaque accumulation and tau hyperphosphorylation. To determine whether microglial activation can exacerbate the pathology, we exposed young 3xTg-AD mice to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a known inducer of CNS inflammation. Although amyloid precursor protein processing appeared unaffected, we find that LPS significantly induced tau hyperphosphorylation at specific sites that were mediated by the activation of cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (cdk5) through increased formation of the p25 fragment. We further show that administration of roscovitine, a selective and potent inhibitor of cdk5, markedly blocked the LPS-induced tau phosphorylation in the hippocampus. Therefore, this study clearly demonstrates that microglial activation exacerbates key neuropathological features such as tangle formation.
Misfolding, aggregation and deposition of α-synuclein (α-syn) are major pathologic characteristics of Parkinson's disease (PD) and the related synucleinopathy, multiple system atrophy (MSA). The ...spread of α-syn pathology across brain regions is thought to play a key role in the onset and progression of clinical phenotypes. Thus, there is increasing interest in developing strategies that target and attenuate α-syn aggregation and spread. Recent studies of brain-penetrating polyphenolic acids, namely, 3-hydroxybenzoic acid (3-HBA), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (3,4-diHBA), and 3-(3-hydroxyphenyl)propionic acid (3-HPPA) that are derived from gut microbiota metabolism of dietary polyphenols, show
ability to effectively modulate α-syn misfolding, oligomerization, and mediate aggregated α-syn neurotoxicity. Here we investigate whether 3-HBA, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HBA), 3,4-diHBA, or 3-HPPA interfere with α-syn spreading in a cell-based system. Using HEK293 cells overexpressing α-syn-A53T-CFP/YFP, we assessed α-syn seeding activity using Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) to detect and quantify α-syn aggregation. We demonstrated that 3-HPPA, 3,4-diHBA, 3-HBA, and 4-HBA significantly attenuated intracellular α-syn seeding aggregation. To determine whether our compounds could inhibit brain-derived seeding activity, we utilized insoluble α-syn extracted from post-mortem MSA or PD brain specimens. We found that 3-HPPA effectively attenuated MSA-induced aggregation of monomer into high molecular weight aggregates capable of inducing intracellular aggregation. Outcomes from our studies suggest interactions between gut microbiome and certain dietary factors may form the basis for effective therapies that modulate pathologic α-syn propagation. Collectively, our findings provide the basis for future developments of probiotic, prebiotic, or synbiotic approaches for modulating the onset and/or progression of α-synucleinopathies.
The gold standard for a definitive diagnosis of Parkinson disease (PD) is the pathologic finding of aggregated α-synuclein into Lewy bodies and for Alzheimer disease (AD) aggregated amyloid into ...plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau into tangles. Implicit in this clinicopathologic-based nosology is the assumption that pathologic protein aggregation at autopsy reflects pathogenesis at disease onset. While these aggregates may in exceptional cases be on a causal pathway in humans (e.g., aggregated α-synuclein in SNCA gene multiplication or aggregated β-amyloid in APP mutations), their near universality at postmortem in sporadic PD and AD suggests they may alternatively represent common outcomes from upstream mechanisms or compensatory responses to cellular stress in order to delay cell death. These 3 conceptual frameworks of protein aggregation (pathogenic, epiphenomenon, protective) are difficult to resolve because of the inability to probe brain tissue in real time. Whereas animal models, in which neither PD nor AD occur in natural states, consistently support a pathogenic role of protein aggregation, indirect evidence from human studies does not. We hypothesize that (1) current biomarkers of protein aggregates may be relevant to common pathology but not to subgroup pathogenesis and (2) disease-modifying treatments targeting oligomers or fibrils might be futile or deleterious because these proteins are epiphenomena or protective in the human brain under molecular stress. Future precision medicine efforts for molecular targeting of neurodegenerative diseases may require analyses not anchored on current clinicopathologic criteria but instead on biological signals generated from large deeply phenotyped aging populations or from smaller but well-defined genetic–molecular cohorts.
Neuronal loss is a major pathological outcome of many common neurological disorders, including ischemia, traumatic brain injury, and Alzheimer disease. Stem cell-based approaches have received ...considerable attention as a potential means of treatment, although it remains to be determined whether stem cells can ameliorate memory dysfunction, a devastating component of these disorders. We generated a transgenic mouse model in which the tetracycline-off system is used to regulate expression of diphtheria toxin A chain. After induction, we find progressive neuronal loss primarily within the hippocampus, leading to specific impairments in memory. We find that neural stem cells transplanted into the brain after neuronal ablation survive, migrate, differentiate and, most significantly, improve memory. These results show that stem cells may have therapeutic value in diseases and conditions that result in memory loss.
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•Levels of α-synuclein in plasma and cerebral CSF distinguish PD from ET.•Metabolic pathway profiles in plasma and CSF distinguish PD from ET.•Increase in plasma NADH/NAMPT support ...pentose phosphate pathway dysregulation in PD.
Parkinson’s disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET) are two common adult-onset tremor disorders in which prevalence increases with age. PD is a neurodegenerative condition with progressive disability. In ET, neurodegeneration is not an established etiology. We sought to determine whether an underlying metabolic pattern may differentiate ET from PD. Circulating metabolites in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. There were several disrupted pathways in PD compared to ET plasma including glycolysis, tyrosine, phenylalanine, tyrosine biosynthesis, purine and glutathione metabolism. Elevated α-synuclein levels in plasma and CSF distinguished PD from ET. The perturbed metabolic state in PD was associated with imbalance in the pentose phosphate pathway, deficits in energy production, and change in NADPH, NADH and nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase levels. This work demonstrates significant metabolic differences in plasma and CSF of PD and ET patients.
: Inflammation is a critical component of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), consisting of the activation of both microglia and astrocytes. Activated microglia and reactive astrocytes are ...found in and around extraneuronal amyloid‐β plaques and are thought to facilitate the clearance of these deposits from the brain parenchyma. However, mounting evidence indicates that chronic activation of microglia, presumably via the secretion of cytokines and reactive molecules, may exacerbate plaque pathology as well as enhance the hyperphosphorylation of tau and the subsequent development of neurofibrillary tangles. Thus, suppression of microglial activity in AD brain has been considered as a potential treatment of AD and may slow the disease progression. Along these lines, anti‐inflammatory drugs, particularly nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), lessen the effects of AD pathology. In this review, we discuss the molecular mechanism of inflammatory responses in AD brain as well as animal models, and current therapies using NSAIDs, antioxidants, and immunotherapy as neuroprotective strategies for AD.
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