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Ondrejcak T, Klyubin I, Hu NW, Yang Y, Zhang Q, Rodriguez BJ, Rowan MJ. Rapidly reversible persistent long-term potentiation inhibition by patient-derived brain tau and amyloid ß proteins. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230234. [PMID: 38853565 PMCID: PMC11343230 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2023] [Revised: 12/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/23/2023] [Indexed: 06/11/2024] Open
Abstract
How the two pathognomonic proteins of Alzheimer's disease (AD); amyloid ß (Aß) and tau, cause synaptic failure remains enigmatic. Certain synthetic and recombinant forms of these proteins are known to act concurrently to acutely inhibit long-term potentiation (LTP). Here, we examined the effect of early amyloidosis on the acute disruptive action of synaptotoxic tau prepared from recombinant protein and tau in patient-derived aqueous brain extracts. We also explored the persistence of the inhibition of LTP by different synaptotoxic tau preparations. A single intracerebral injection of aggregates of recombinant human tau that had been prepared by either sonication of fibrils (SτAs) or disulfide bond formation (oTau) rapidly and persistently inhibited LTP in rat hippocampus. The threshold for the acute inhibitory effect of oTau was lowered in amyloid precursor protein (APP)-transgenic rats. A single injection of synaptotoxic tau-containing AD or Pick's disease brain extracts also inhibited LTP, for over two weeks. Remarkably, the persistent disruption of synaptic plasticity by patient-derived brain tau was rapidly reversed by a single intracerebral injection of different anti-tau monoclonal antibodies, including one directed to a specific human tau amino acid sequence. We conclude that patient-derived LTP-disrupting tau species persist in the brain for weeks, maintaining their neuroactivity often in concert with Aß. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Long-term potentiation: 50 years on'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas Ondrejcak
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
| | - Igor Klyubin
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
| | - Neng-Wei Hu
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, 100 Science Avenue, Zhengzhou450001, People's Republic of China
| | - Yin Yang
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, 100 Science Avenue, Zhengzhou450001, People's Republic of China
| | - Qiancheng Zhang
- School of Physics and Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland
| | - Brian J. Rodriguez
- School of Physics and Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland
| | - Michael J. Rowan
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, School of Medicine, and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland
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Chang K, Barrett A, Pham K, Troncoso JC. Lateral geniculate body is spared of tau pathology in Pick disease. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 2024; 83:238-244. [PMID: 38412343 PMCID: PMC10951972 DOI: 10.1093/jnen/nlae016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/29/2024] Open
Abstract
The pathobiology of tau is of great importance for understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in aging and age-associated disorders such as Alzheimer disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementias. It is critical to identify neuronal populations and brain regions that are vulnerable or resistant to tau pathological changes. Pick disease (PiD) is a three-repeat (3R) tauopathy that belongs to the group of frontotemporal lobar degenerations. The neuropathologic changes of PiD are characterized by globular tau-positive neuronal intracytoplasmic inclusions, called Pick bodies, in the granule cells of the dentate gyrus and frontal and temporal neocortices, and ballooned neurons, named Pick neurons, in the neocortex. In the present study, we examined 13 autopsy-confirmed cases of PiD. Using immunohistochemistry for phospho-tau (AT8) and 3R tau isoform, all PiD cases demonstrated extensive lesions involving the hippocampus and neocortex. However, the lateral geniculate body (LGB) is spared of significant tau lesions in contrast to the neighboring hippocampus and other thalamic nuclei. Only 1 PiD case (7.7%) had tau-positive neurons, and 4 cases had tau-positive neurites (31%) in the LGB. By contrast, the LGB does consistently harbor tau lesions in other tauopathies including progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, and AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Koping Chang
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department and Graduate Institute of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Alexander Barrett
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Khoa Pham
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Juan C Troncoso
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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Alhadidy MM, Kanaan NM. Biochemical approaches to assess the impact of post-translational modifications on pathogenic tau conformations using recombinant protein. Biochem Soc Trans 2024; 52:301-318. [PMID: 38348781 PMCID: PMC10903483 DOI: 10.1042/bst20230596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/29/2024]
Abstract
Tau protein is associated with many neurodegenerative disorders known as tauopathies. Aggregates of tau are thought of as a main contributor to neurodegeneration in these diseases. Increasingly, evidence points to earlier, soluble conformations of abnormally modified monomers and multimeric tau as toxic forms of tau. The biological processes driving tau from physiological species to pathogenic conformations remain poorly understood, but certain avenues are currently under investigation including the functional consequences of various pathological tau changes (e.g. mutations, post-translational modifications (PTMs), and protein-protein interactions). PTMs can regulate several aspects of tau biology such as proteasomal and autophagic clearance, solubility, and aggregation. Moreover, PTMs can contribute to the transition of tau from normal to pathogenic conformations. However, our understating of how PTMs specifically regulate the transition of tau into pathogenic conformations is partly impeded by the relative lack of structured frameworks to assess and quantify these conformations. In this review, we describe a set of approaches that includes several in vitro assays to determine the contribution of PTMs to tau's transition into known pathogenic conformations. The approaches begin with different methods to create recombinant tau proteins carrying specific PTMs followed by validation of the PTMs status. Then, we describe a set of biochemical and biophysical assays that assess the contribution of a given PTM to different tau conformations, including aggregation, oligomerization, exposure of the phosphatase-activating domain, and seeding. Together, these approaches can facilitate the advancement of our understanding of the relationships between PTMs and tau conformations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammed M. Alhadidy
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A
- Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A
| | - Nicholas M. Kanaan
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A
- Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, U.S.A
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Ondrejcak T, Klyubin I, Hu NW, O'Malley TT, Corbett GT, Winters R, Perkinton MS, Billinton A, Prenderville JA, Walsh DM, Rowan MJ. Tau and Amyloid β Protein in Patient-Derived Aqueous Brain Extracts Act Concomitantly to Disrupt Long-Term Potentiation in Vivo. J Neurosci 2023; 43:5870-5879. [PMID: 37491315 PMCID: PMC10423043 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0082-23.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2023] [Revised: 06/07/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Amyloid β protein (Aβ) and tau, the two main proteins implicated in causing Alzheimer's disease (AD), are posited to trigger synaptic dysfunction long before significant synaptic loss occurs in vulnerable circuits. Whereas soluble Aβ aggregates from AD brain are well recognized potent synaptotoxins, less is known about the synaptotoxicity of soluble tau from AD or other tauopathy patient brains. Minimally manipulated patient-derived aqueous brain extracts contain the more diffusible native forms of these proteins. Here, we explore how intracerebral injection of Aβ and tau present in such aqueous extracts of patient brain contribute to disruption of synaptic plasticity in the CA1 area of the male rat hippocampus. Aqueous extracts of certain AD brains acutely inhibited long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission in a manner that required both Aβ and tau. Tau-containing aqueous extracts of a brain from a patient with Pick's disease (PiD) also impaired LTP, and diffusible tau from either AD or PiD brain lowered the threshold for AD brain Aβ to inhibit LTP. Remarkably, the disruption of LTP persisted for at least 2 weeks after a single injection. These findings support a critical role for diffusible tau in causing rapid onset, persistent synaptic plasticity deficits, and promoting Aβ-mediated synaptic dysfunction.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The microtubule-associated protein tau forms relatively insoluble fibrillar deposits in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's and Pick's diseases. More soluble aggregates of disease-associated tau may diffuse between cells and could cause damage to synapses in vulnerable circuits. We prepared aqueous extracts of diseased cerebral cortex and tested their ability to interfere with synaptic function in the brains of live rats. Tau in these extracts rapidly and persistently disrupted synaptic plasticity and facilitated impairments caused by amyloid β protein, the other major pathologic protein in Alzheimer's disease. These findings show that certain diffusible forms of tau can mediate synaptic dysfunction and may be a target for therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomas Ondrejcak
- Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, School of Medicine and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Igor Klyubin
- Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, School of Medicine and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Neng-Wei Hu
- Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, School of Medicine and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
| | - Tiernan T O'Malley
- Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Research, Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Hale Building for Transformative Medicine, 60 Fenwood Road, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Grant T Corbett
- Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Research, Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Hale Building for Transformative Medicine, 60 Fenwood Road, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Róisín Winters
- Transpharmation Ireland, Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Michael S Perkinton
- Neuroscience, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca UK, Cambridge, CB21 6GH, United Kingdom
| | - Andy Billinton
- Neuroscience, BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca UK, Cambridge, CB21 6GH, United Kingdom
| | - Jack A Prenderville
- Transpharmation Ireland, Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
- Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
| | - Dominic M Walsh
- Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Research, Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Hale Building for Transformative Medicine, 60 Fenwood Road, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
| | - Michael J Rowan
- Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, School of Medicine and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
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Roelofs A. Cerebral atrophy as a cause of aphasia: From Pick to the modern era. Cortex 2023; 165:101-118. [PMID: 37276800 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.05.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2023] [Revised: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
In his epoch-making monograph, Wernicke (1874) claimed that atrophy of the brain cannot cause aphasia. Refuting this claim, Pick (1892, 1898, 1901, 1904a) documented in increasing detail several cases of aphasia with circumscribed atrophy of the left temporal lobe, frontal lobe, or both, which persuaded Wernicke (1906). To explain why the atrophy is circumscribed and leads to focal symptoms, Pick (1908a) advanced a functional network account. Behavioral, neuroanatomical, and histopathological studies by Dejerine and Sérieux, Fischer, Alzheimer, Altman, Gans, Onari and Spatz, and Stertz further illuminated the clinical syndromes, the exact spatial distributions of the atrophy, the underlying disease, and its laminar specificity. Unaware of these seminal studies, research from the 1970s until now has independently rediscovered all key findings, and also supports Pick's forgotten functional account of the distribution of atrophy and the focal symptoms. His frontal and temporal forms of aphasia foreshadowed what are now called the nonfluent/agrammatic and semantic variants of primary progressive aphasia. Moreover, aphasic symptoms may occur with frontal degeneration (what used to be called "Pick's disease") that yields personality changes and behavioral disturbances, now called the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ardi Roelofs
- Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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Jeong S, Kang HW, Kim SH, Hong GS, Nam MH, Seong J, Yoon ES, Cho IJ, Chung S, Bang S, Kim HN, Choi N. Integration of reconfigurable microchannels into aligned three-dimensional neural networks for spatially controllable neuromodulation. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadf0925. [PMID: 36897938 PMCID: PMC10005277 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf0925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 02/08/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Anisotropically organized neural networks are indispensable routes for functional connectivity in the brain, which remains largely unknown. While prevailing animal models require additional preparation and stimulation-applying devices and have exhibited limited capabilities regarding localized stimulation, no in vitro platform exists that permits spatiotemporal control of chemo-stimulation in anisotropic three-dimensional (3D) neural networks. We present the integration of microchannels seamlessly into a fibril-aligned 3D scaffold by adapting a single fabrication principle. We investigated the underlying physics of elastic microchannels' ridges and interfacial sol-gel transition of collagen under compression to determine a critical window of geometry and strain. We demonstrated the spatiotemporally resolved neuromodulation in an aligned 3D neural network by local deliveries of KCl and Ca2+ signal inhibitors, such as tetrodotoxin, nifedipine, and mibefradil, and also visualized Ca2+ signal propagation with a speed of ~3.7 μm/s. We anticipate that our technology will pave the way to elucidate functional connectivity and neurological diseases associated with transsynaptic propagation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sohyeon Jeong
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- Division of Bio-Medical Science and Technology, KIST School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- MEPSGEN Co. Ltd., Seoul 05836, Korea
| | - Hyun Wook Kang
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
| | - So Hyun Kim
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Seongnam 13494, Korea
| | - Gyu-Sang Hong
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
| | - Min-Ho Nam
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
| | - Jihye Seong
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- Division of Bio-Medical Science and Technology, KIST School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- Department of Life Sciences, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
- KHU-KIST Department of Converging Science and Technology, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02453, Korea
| | - Eui-Sung Yoon
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- Division of Nano and Information Technology, KIST School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul 02792, Korea
| | - Il-Joo Cho
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
- Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
| | - Seok Chung
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
- KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
| | - Seokyoung Bang
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- Department of Medical Biotechnology, Dongguk University, Goyang 10326, Korea
| | - Hong Nam Kim
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- Division of Bio-Medical Science and Technology, KIST School, University of Science and Technology (UST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- School of Mechanical Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
- Yonsei-KIST Convergence Research Institute, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea
| | - Nakwon Choi
- Brain Science Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul 02792, Korea
- KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
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Cis-p-tau plays crucial role in lysolecithin-induced demyelination and subsequent axonopathy in mouse optic chiasm. Exp Neurol 2023; 359:114262. [PMID: 36343678 DOI: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2022.114262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Revised: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease that leads to axon degeneration as the major cause of everlasting neurological disability. The cis-phosphorylated tau (cis-p-tau) is an isoform of tau phosphorylated on threonine 231 and causes tau fails to bind micro-tubules and promotes assembly. It gains toxic function and forms tangles in the cell which finally leads to cell death. An antibody raised against cis- p-tau (cis mAb) detects this isoform and induces its clearance. Here, we investigated the formation of cis-p-tau in a lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC)-induced prolonged demyelination model as well as the beneficial effects of its clearance using cis mAb. Cis -p-tau was increased in the lesion site, especially in axons and microglia. Behavioral and functional studies were performed using visual cliff test, visual placing test, and visual evoked potential recording. Cis-p-tau clearance resulted in decreased gliosis, protected myelin and reduced axon degeneration. Analysis of behavioral and electrophysiological data showed that clearance of cis-p-tau by cis mAb treatment improved the visual acuity along with the integrity of the optic pathway. Our results highlight the opportunity of using cis mAb as a new therapy for protecting myelin and axons in patients suffering from MS.
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Common and Specific Marks of Different Tau Strains Following Intra-Hippocampal Injection of AD, PiD, and GGT Inoculum in hTau Transgenic Mice. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms232415940. [PMID: 36555581 PMCID: PMC9787745 DOI: 10.3390/ijms232415940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2022] [Revised: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Heterozygous hTau mice were used for the study of tau seeding. These mice express the six human tau isoforms, with a high predominance of 3Rtau over 4Rtau. The following groups were assessed: (i) non-inoculated mice aged 9 months (n = 4); (ii) Alzheimer's Disease (AD)-inoculated mice (n = 4); (iii) Globular Glial Tauopathy (GGT)-inoculated mice (n = 4); (iv) Pick's disease (PiD)-inoculated mice (n = 4); (v) control-inoculated mice (n = 4); and (vi) inoculated with vehicle alone (n = 2). AD-inoculated mice showed AT8-immunoreactive neuronal pre-tangles, granular aggregates, and dots in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, dentate gyrus (DG), and hilus, and threads and dots in the ipsilateral corpus callosum. GGT-inoculated mice showed unique or multiple AT8-immunoreactive globular deposits in neurons, occasionally extended to the proximal dendrites. PiD-inoculated mice showed a few loose pre-tangles in the CA1 region, DG, and cerebral cortex near the injection site. Coiled bodies were formed in the corpus callosum in AD-inoculated mice, but GGT-inoculated mice lacked globular glial inclusions. Tau deposits in inoculated mice co-localized active kinases p38-P and SAPK/JNK-P, thus suggesting active phosphorylation of the host tau. Tau deposits were absent in hTau mice inoculated with control homogenates and vehicle alone. Deposits in AD-inoculated hTau mice contained 3Rtau and 4Rtau; those in GGT-inoculated mice were mainly stained with anti-4Rtau antibodies, but a small number of deposits contained 3Rtau. Deposits in PiD-inoculated mice were stained with anti-3Rtau antibodies, but rare neuronal, thread-like, and dot-like deposits showed 4Rtau immunoreactivity. These findings show that tau strains produce different patterns of active neuronal seeding, which also depend on the host tau. Unexpected 3Rtau and 4Rtau deposits after inoculation of homogenates from 4R and 3R tauopathies, respectively, suggests the regulation of exon 10 splicing of the host tau during the process of seeding, thus modulating the plasticity of the cytoskeleton.
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Imbimbo BP, Ippati S, Watling M, Balducci C. A critical appraisal of tau-targeting therapies for primary and secondary tauopathies. Alzheimers Dement 2021; 18:1008-1037. [PMID: 34533272 DOI: 10.1002/alz.12453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2021] [Revised: 07/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Primary tauopathies are neurological disorders in which tau protein deposition is the predominant pathological feature. Alzheimer's disease is a secondary tauopathy with tau forming hyperphosphorylated insoluble aggregates. Tau pathology can propagate from region to region in the brain, while alterations in tau processing may impair tau physiological functions. METHODS We reviewed literature on tau biology and anti-tau drugs using PubMed, meeting abstracts, and ClnicalTrials.gov. RESULTS The past 15 years have seen >30 drugs interfering with tau aggregation, processing, and accumulation reaching the clinic. Initial results with tau aggregation inhibitors and anti-tau monoclonal antibodies have not shown clinical efficacy. DISCUSSION The reasons for these clinical failures are unclear but could be linked to the clearing of physiological forms of tau by non-specific drugs. Research is now concentrating efforts on developing reliable translational animal models and selective compounds targeting specific tau epitopes, neurotoxic tau aggregates, and post-translational tau modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bruno P Imbimbo
- Department of Research & Development, Chiesi Farmaceutici, Parma, Italy
| | - Stefania Ippati
- San Raffaele Scientific Institute, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy
| | - Mark Watling
- CNS & Pain Department, TranScrip Ltd, Reading, UK
| | - Claudia Balducci
- Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri" IRCCS, Milan, Italy
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Rai SK, Savastano A, Singh P, Mukhopadhyay S, Zweckstetter M. Liquid-liquid phase separation of tau: From molecular biophysics to physiology and disease. Protein Sci 2021; 30:1294-1314. [PMID: 33930220 PMCID: PMC8197432 DOI: 10.1002/pro.4093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 04/24/2021] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Biomolecular condensation via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of intrinsically disordered proteins/regions (IDPs/IDRs), with and without nucleic acids, has drawn widespread interest due to the rapidly unfolding role of phase-separated condensates in a diverse range of cellular functions and human diseases. Biomolecular condensates form via transient and multivalent intermolecular forces that sequester proteins and nucleic acids into liquid-like membrane-less compartments. However, aberrant phase transitions into gel-like or solid-like aggregates might play an important role in neurodegenerative and other diseases. Tau, a microtubule-associated neuronal IDP, is involved in microtubule stabilization, regulates axonal outgrowth and transport in neurons. A growing body of evidence indicates that tau can accomplish some of its cellular activities via LLPS. However, liquid-to-solid transition resulting in the abnormal aggregation of tau is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The physical chemistry of tau is crucial for governing its propensity for biomolecular condensation which is governed by various intermolecular and intramolecular interactions leading to simple one-component and complex multi-component condensates. In this review, we aim at capturing the current scientific state in unveiling the intriguing molecular mechanism of phase separation of tau. We particularly focus on the amalgamation of existing and emerging biophysical tools that offer unique spatiotemporal resolutions on a wide range of length- and time-scales. We also discuss the link between quantitative biophysical measurements and novel biological insights into biomolecular condensation of tau. We believe that this account will provide a broad and multidisciplinary view of phase separation of tau and its association with physiology and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandeep K. Rai
- Centre for Protein Science, Design and Engineering, Department of Biological Sciences, and Department of Chemical SciencesIndian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)MohaliIndia
| | - Adriana Savastano
- Research group Translational Structural BiologyGerman Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)GöttingenGermany
| | - Priyanka Singh
- Centre for Protein Science, Design and Engineering, Department of Biological Sciences, and Department of Chemical SciencesIndian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)MohaliIndia
| | - Samrat Mukhopadhyay
- Centre for Protein Science, Design and Engineering, Department of Biological Sciences, and Department of Chemical SciencesIndian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)MohaliIndia
| | - Markus Zweckstetter
- Research group Translational Structural BiologyGerman Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)GöttingenGermany
- Department for NMR‐based Structural BiologyMax Planck Institute for Biophysical ChemistryGöttingenGermany
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11
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Khoury R, Liu Y, Sheheryar Q, Grossberg GT. Pharmacotherapy for Frontotemporal Dementia. CNS Drugs 2021; 35:425-438. [PMID: 33840052 DOI: 10.1007/s40263-021-00813-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Frontotemporal dementia is a heterogeneous spectrum of neurodegenerative disorders. The neuropathological inclusions are tau proteins, TAR DNA binding protein 43 kDa-TDP-43, or fused in sarcoma-ubiquitinated inclusions. Genetically, several autosomal mutations account for the heritability of the disorder. Phenotypically, frontotemporal dementia can present with a behavioral variant or a language variant called primary progressive aphasia. To date, there are no approved symptomatic or disease-modifying treatments for frontotemporal dementia. Currently used therapies are supported by low-level of evidence (mostly uncontrolled) studies. The off-label use of drugs is also limited by their side-effect profile including an increased risk of confusion, parkinsonian symptoms, and risk of mortality. Emerging disease-modifying treatments currently target the progranulin and the expansion on chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 genes as well as tau deposits. Advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and improving the design of future clinical trials are much needed to optimize the chances to obtain positive outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rita Khoury
- Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, Saint Georges Hospital University Medical Center, Youssef Sursock Street, PO Box 166378, Beirut, Lebanon. .,Faculty of Medicine, University of Balamand, Beirut, Lebanon. .,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
| | - Yu Liu
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA
| | - Quratulanne Sheheryar
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA
| | - George T Grossberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA
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12
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Savastano A, Jaipuria G, Andreas L, Mandelkow E, Zweckstetter M. Solid-state NMR investigation of the involvement of the P2 region in tau amyloid fibrils. Sci Rep 2020; 10:21210. [PMID: 33273615 PMCID: PMC7712923 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-78161-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
The aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau into amyloid fibrils is closely linked to the progression of Alzheimer's disease. To gain insight into the link between amyloid structure and disease, the three-dimensional structure of tau fibrils has been studied using solid-state NMR (ssNMR) and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The proline-rich region of tau remains poorly defined in the context of tau amyloid structures, despite the clustering of several phosphorylation sites, which have been associated with Alzheimer's disease. In order to gain insight into the contribution of the proline-rich region P2 of tau to amyloid fibrils, we studied in vitro aggregated amyloid fibrils of tau constructs, which contain both the proline-rich region P2 and the pseudo-repeats. Using ssNMR we show that the sequence [Formula: see text], the most hydrophobic patch within the P2 region, loses its flexibility upon formation of amyloid fibrils. The data suggest a contribution of the P2 region to tau amyloid fibril formation, which might account for some of the unassigned electron density in cryo-EM studies of tau fibrils and could be modulated by tau phosphorylation at the disease-associated AT180 epitope T231/S235.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana Savastano
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Von-Siebold-Str. 3a, 37075, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Garima Jaipuria
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Von-Siebold-Str. 3a, 37075, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Loren Andreas
- Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Faßberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Eckhard Mandelkow
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Venusberg-Campus 1, 53127, Bonn, Germany
- CAESAR Research Center, Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175, Bonn, Germany
| | - Markus Zweckstetter
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Von-Siebold-Str. 3a, 37075, Göttingen, Germany.
- Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Faßberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
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13
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Stevenson R, Samokhina E, Rossetti I, Morley JW, Buskila Y. Neuromodulation of Glial Function During Neurodegeneration. Front Cell Neurosci 2020; 14:278. [PMID: 32973460 PMCID: PMC7473408 DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2020.00278] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2020] [Accepted: 08/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Glia, a non-excitable cell type once considered merely as the connective tissue between neurons, is nowadays acknowledged for its essential contribution to multiple physiological processes including learning, memory formation, excitability, synaptic plasticity, ion homeostasis, and energy metabolism. Moreover, as glia are key players in the brain immune system and provide structural and nutritional support for neurons, they are intimately involved in multiple neurological disorders. Recent advances have demonstrated that glial cells, specifically microglia and astroglia, are involved in several neurodegenerative diseases including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Epilepsy, Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). While there is compelling evidence for glial modulation of synaptic formation and regulation that affect neuronal signal processing and activity, in this manuscript we will review recent findings on neuronal activity that affect glial function, specifically during neurodegenerative disorders. We will discuss the nature of each glial malfunction, its specificity to each disorder, overall contribution to the disease progression and assess its potential as a future therapeutic target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Stevenson
- School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
| | - Evgeniia Samokhina
- School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
| | - Ilaria Rossetti
- School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
| | - John W. Morley
- School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
| | - Yossi Buskila
- School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia
- International Centre for Neuromorphic Systems, The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Penrith, NSW, Australia
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14
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Hammes J, Bischof GN, Bohn KP, Onur Ö, Schneider A, Fliessbach K, Hönig MC, Jessen F, Neumaier B, Drzezga A, van Eimeren T. One-Stop Shop: 18F-Flortaucipir PET Differentiates Amyloid-Positive and -Negative Forms of Neurodegenerative Diseases. J Nucl Med 2020; 62:240-246. [PMID: 32620704 DOI: 10.2967/jnumed.120.244061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Accepted: 05/30/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Tau protein aggregations are a hallmark of amyloid-associated Alzheimer disease and some forms of non-amyloid-associated frontotemporal lobar degeneration. In recent years, several tracers for in vivo tau imaging have been under evaluation. This study investigated the ability of 18F-flortaucipir PET not only to assess tau positivity but also to differentiate between amyloid-positive and -negative forms of neurodegeneration on the basis of different 18F-flortaucipir PET signatures. Methods: The 18F-flortaucipir PET data of 35 patients with amyloid-positive neurodegeneration, 19 patients with amyloid-negative neurodegeneration, and 17 healthy controls were included in a data-driven scaled subprofile model (SSM)/principal-component analysis (PCA) identifying spatial covariance patterns. SSM/PCA pattern expression strengths were tested for their ability to predict amyloid status in a receiver-operating-characteristic analysis and validated with a leave-one-out approach. Results: Pattern expression strengths predicted amyloid status with a sensitivity of 0.94 and a specificity of 0.83. A support vector machine classification based on pattern expression strengths in 2 different SSM/PCA components yielded a prediction accuracy of 98%. Anatomically, prediction performance was driven by parietooccipital gray matter in amyloid-positive patients versus predominant white matter binding in amyloid-negative patients. Conclusion: SSM/PCA-derived binding patterns of 18F-flortaucipir differentiate between amyloid-positive and -negative neurodegenerative diseases with high accuracy. 18F-flortaucipir PET alone may convey additional information equivalent to that from amyloid PET. Together with a perfusion-weighted early-phase acquisition (18F-FDG PET-equivalent), a single scan potentially contains comprehensive information on amyloid (A), tau (T), and neurodegeneration (N) status as required by recent biomarker classification algorithms (A/T/N).
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Affiliation(s)
- Jochen Hammes
- Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany .,Radiologische Allianz, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Gérard N Bischof
- Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Karl P Bohn
- Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,Department of Nuclear Medicine, Inselspital University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Özgür Onur
- Department of Neurology, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,Cognitive Neuroscience (INM-3), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Anja Schneider
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn and Cologne, Germany.,Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Klaus Fliessbach
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn and Cologne, Germany.,Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
| | - Merle C Hönig
- Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,Molecular Organization of the Brain (INM-2), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Frank Jessen
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn and Cologne, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; and
| | - Bernd Neumaier
- Nuclear Chemistry (INM-5), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany, and Institute of Radiochemistry and Experimental Molecular Imaging, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Alexander Drzezga
- Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn and Cologne, Germany.,Molecular Organization of the Brain (INM-2), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Thilo van Eimeren
- Multimodal Neuroimaging, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,Department of Neurology, University Hospital and Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.,German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Bonn and Cologne, Germany
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15
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Red Ginseng Inhibits Tau Aggregation and Promotes Tau Dissociation In Vitro. OXIDATIVE MEDICINE AND CELLULAR LONGEVITY 2020; 2020:7829842. [PMID: 32685100 PMCID: PMC7350179 DOI: 10.1155/2020/7829842] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2020] [Revised: 05/21/2020] [Accepted: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Tau, a microtubule-associated protein expressed in mature neurons, interacts with tubulin to promote the assembly and stabilization of microtubules. However, abnormally hyperphosphorylated tau dissociates from microtubules and self-aggregates. Tau aggregates, including paired helical filaments and neurofibrillary tangles, promote neuronal dysfunction and death and are the defining neuropathological feature of tauopathies. Therefore, suppressing tau aggregation or stimulating the dissociation of tau aggregates has been proposed as an effective strategy for treating neurodegenerative diseases associated with tau pathology such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia. Interestingly, ginsenosides extracted from Panax ginseng reduced the hippocampal and cortical expression of phosphorylated tau in a rat model of AD. However, no studies have been conducted into the effect of red ginseng (RG) and its components on tau pathology. Here, we evaluated the effect of Korean red ginseng extract (KRGE) and its components on the aggregation and disassociation of tau. Using the thioflavin T assay, we monitored the change in fluorescence produced by the aggregation or disassociation of tau K18, an aggregation-prone fragment of tau441 containing the microtubule-binding domain. Our analysis revealed that KRGE not only inhibited tau aggregation but also promoted the dissociation of tau aggregates. In addition, the KRGE fractions, such as saponin, nonsaponin, and nonsaponin fraction with rich polysaccharide, also inhibited tau aggregation and promoted the dissociation of tau aggregates. Our observations suggest that RG could be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases associated with tauopathy.
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16
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Lee KS, Choi M, Kwon DW, Kim D, Choi JM, Kim AK, Ham Y, Han SB, Cho S, Cheon CK. A novel de novo heterozygous DYRK1A mutation causes complete loss of DYRK1A function and developmental delay. Sci Rep 2020; 10:9849. [PMID: 32555303 PMCID: PMC7299959 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66750-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1 A (DYRK1A) is essential for human development, and DYRK1A haploinsufficiency is associated with a recognizable developmental syndrome and variable clinical features. Here, we present a patient with DYRK1A haploinsufficiency syndrome, including facial dysmorphism, delayed motor development, cardiovascular system defects, and brain atrophy. Exome sequencing identified a novel de novo heterozygous mutation of the human DYRK1A gene (c.1185dup), which generated a translational termination codon and resulted in a C-terminally truncated protein (DYRK1A-E396ter). To study the molecular effect of this truncation, we generated mammalian cell and Drosophila models that recapitulated the DYRK1A protein truncation. Analysis of the structure and deformation energy of the mutant protein predicted a reduction in protein stability. Experimentally, the mutant protein was efficiently degraded by the ubiquitin-dependent proteasome pathway and was barely detectable in mammalian cells. More importantly, the mutant kinase was intrinsically inactive and had little negative impact on the wild-type protein. Similarly, the mutant protein had a minimal effect on Drosophila phenotypes, confirming its loss-of-function in vivo. Together, our results suggest that the novel heterozygous mutation of DYRK1A resulted in loss-of-function of the kinase activity of DYRK1A and may contribute to the developmental delay observed in the patient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyu-Sun Lee
- Bionanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 125 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
- Department of Functional Genomics, KRIBB School of Bioscience, Korea University of Science and Technology, 217 Gajeong-ro, Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea
| | - Miri Choi
- Natural Medicine Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 30 Yeongudanji-ro, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, 28116, Republic of Korea
- College of Pharmacy, Chungbuk National University, 30-1 Yeonje-ri, Osong-eup, Heungduk-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, 28644, Republic of Korea
| | - Dae-Woo Kwon
- Bionanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 125 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
- Department of Functional Genomics, KRIBB School of Bioscience, Korea University of Science and Technology, 217 Gajeong-ro, Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea
| | - Doyoun Kim
- Innovative Target Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, 141 Gajeong-ro, Jang-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34114, Republic of Korea
| | - Jong-Moon Choi
- Green Cross Genome, Green Cross Laboratories, 107 Ihyeon-ro 30 beon-gil, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi, 16924, Republic of Korea
| | - Ae-Kyeong Kim
- Bionanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 125 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea
| | - Youngwook Ham
- Natural Medicine Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 30 Yeongudanji-ro, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, 28116, Republic of Korea
- College of Pharmacy, Chungbuk National University, 30-1 Yeonje-ri, Osong-eup, Heungduk-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, 28644, Republic of Korea
| | - Sang-Bae Han
- College of Pharmacy, Chungbuk National University, 30-1 Yeonje-ri, Osong-eup, Heungduk-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, 28644, Republic of Korea
| | - Sungchan Cho
- Natural Medicine Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, 30 Yeongudanji-ro, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, 28116, Republic of Korea.
- Department of Biomolecular Science, KRIBB School of Bioscience, Korea University of Science and Technology, 217 Gajeong-ro, Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea.
| | - Chong Kun Cheon
- Division of Medical Genetics and Metabolism, Department of Pediatrics, Pusan National University Children's Hospital, Pusan National University School of Medicine, 20 Geumo-ro, Mulgeum-eup, Yangsan-si, Gyeongnam, 50612, Republic of Korea.
- Research Institute for Convergence of Biomedical Science and Technology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, 20 Geumo-ro, Mulgeum-eup, Yangsan-si, Gyeongnam, 50612, Republic of Korea.
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17
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Arena JD, Smith DH, Lee EB, Gibbons GS, Irwin DJ, Robinson JL, Lee VMY, Trojanowski JQ, Stewart W, Johnson VE. Tau immunophenotypes in chronic traumatic encephalopathy recapitulate those of ageing and Alzheimer's disease. Brain 2020; 143:1572-1587. [PMID: 32390044 PMCID: PMC7241956 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awaa071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2019] [Revised: 01/21/2020] [Accepted: 02/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a risk factor for neurodegenerative disease, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Preliminary consensus criteria define the pathognomonic lesion of CTE as patchy tau pathology within neurons and astrocytes at the depths of cortical sulci. However, the specific tau isoform composition and post-translational modifications in CTE remain largely unexplored. Using immunohistochemistry, we performed tau phenotyping of CTE neuropathologies and compared this to a range of tau pathologies, including Alzheimer's disease, primary age-related tauopathy, ageing-related tau astrogliopathy and multiple subtypes of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau inclusions. Cases satisfying preliminary consensus diagnostic criteria for CTE neuropathological change (CTE-NC) were identified (athletes, n = 10; long-term survivors of moderate or severe TBI, n = 4) from the Glasgow TBI Archive and Penn Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank. In addition, material from a range of autopsy-proven ageing-associated and primary tauopathies in which there was no known history of exposure to TBI was selected as non-injured controls (n = 32). Each case was then stained with a panel of tau antibodies specific for phospho-epitopes (PHF1, CP13, AT100, pS262), microtubule-binding repeat domains (3R, 4R), truncation (Tau-C3) or conformation (GT-7, GT-38) and the extent and distribution of staining assessed. Cell types were confirmed with double immunofluorescent labelling. Results demonstrate that astroglial tau pathology in CTE is composed of 4R-immunoreactive thorn-shaped astrocytes, echoing the morphology and immunophenotype of astrocytes encountered in ageing-related tau astrogliopathy. In contrast, neurofibrillary tangles of CTE contain both 3R and 4R tau, with post-translational modifications and conformations consistent with Alzheimer's disease and primary age-related tauopathy. Our observations establish that the astroglial and neurofibrillary tau pathologies of CTE are phenotypically distinct from each other and recapitulate the tau immunophenotypes encountered in ageing and Alzheimer's disease. As such, the immunohistochemical distinction of CTE neuropathology from other mixed 3R/4R tauopathies of Alzheimer's disease and ageing may rest solely on the pattern and distribution of pathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- John D Arena
- Department of Neurosurgery, Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Douglas H Smith
- Department of Neurosurgery, Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Edward B Lee
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
- Translational Neuropathology Research Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Garrett S Gibbons
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - David J Irwin
- Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - John L Robinson
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - Virginia M -Y Lee
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - John Q Trojanowski
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
| | - William Stewart
- Department of Neuropathology, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow G51 4TF, UK
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK
| | - Victoria E Johnson
- Department of Neurosurgery, Penn Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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18
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Metrick MA, Ferreira NDC, Saijo E, Kraus A, Newell K, Zanusso G, Vendruscolo M, Ghetti B, Caughey B. A single ultrasensitive assay for detection and discrimination of tau aggregates of Alzheimer and Pick diseases. Acta Neuropathol Commun 2020; 8:22. [PMID: 32087764 PMCID: PMC7036215 DOI: 10.1186/s40478-020-0887-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 01/26/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Multiple neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by aggregation of tau molecules. Adult humans express six isoforms of tau that contain either 3 or 4 microtubule binding repeats (3R or 4R tau). Different diseases involve preferential aggregation of 3R (e.g Pick disease), 4R (e.g. progressive supranuclear palsy), or both 3R and 4R tau molecules [e.g. Alzheimer disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy]. Three ultrasensitive cell-free seed amplification assays [called tau real-time quaking induced conversion (tau RT-QuIC) assays] have been developed that preferentially detect 3R, 4R, or 3R/4R tau aggregates in biospecimens. In these reactions, low-fg amounts of a given self-propagating protein aggregate (the seed) are incubated with a vast excess of recombinant tau monomers (the substrate) in multi-well plates. Over time, the seeds incorporate the substrate to grow into amyloids that can then be detected using thioflavin T fluorescence. Here we describe a tau RT-QuIC assay (K12 RT-QuIC) that, using a C-terminally extended recombinant 3R tau substrate (K12CFh), enables sensitive detection of Pick disease, Alzheimer disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy seeds in brain homogenates. The discrimination of Pick disease from Alzheimer disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy cases is then achieved through the quantitative differences in K12 RT-QuIC assay thioflavin T responses, which correlate with structural properties of the reaction products. In particular, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of the respective K12CFh amyloids showed distinct β-sheet conformations, suggesting at least partial propagation of the original seed conformations in vitro. Thus, K12 RT-QuIC provides a single assay for ultrasensitive detection and discrimination of tau aggregates comprised mainly of 3R, or both 3R and 4R, tau isoforms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael A. Metrick
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840 USA
- Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW UK
| | | | - Eri Saijo
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840 USA
| | - Allison Kraus
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840 USA
| | - Kathy Newell
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA
| | - Gianluigi Zanusso
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, Italy
| | - Michele Vendruscolo
- Centre for Misfolding Diseases, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1EW UK
| | - Bernardino Ghetti
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA
| | - Byron Caughey
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840 USA
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19
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Saijo E, Metrick MA, Koga S, Parchi P, Litvan I, Spina S, Boxer A, Rojas JC, Galasko D, Kraus A, Rossi M, Newell K, Zanusso G, Grinberg LT, Seeley WW, Ghetti B, Dickson DW, Caughey B. 4-Repeat tau seeds and templating subtypes as brain and CSF biomarkers of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Acta Neuropathol 2020; 139:63-77. [PMID: 31616982 PMCID: PMC7192393 DOI: 10.1007/s00401-019-02080-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Revised: 09/08/2019] [Accepted: 09/26/2019] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
To address the need for more meaningful biomarkers of tauopathies, we have developed an ultrasensitive tau seed amplification assay (4R RT-QuIC) for the 4-repeat (4R) tau aggregates of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), and other diseases with 4R tauopathy. The assay detected seeds in 106-109-fold dilutions of 4R tauopathy brain tissue but was orders of magnitude less responsive to brain with other types of tauopathy, such as from Alzheimer's disease cases. The analytical sensitivity for synthetic 4R tau fibrils was ~ 50 fM or 2 fg/sample. A novel dimension of this tau RT-QuIC testing was the identification of three disease-associated classes of 4R tau seeds; these classes were revealed by conformational variations in the in vitro amplified tau fibrils as detected by thioflavin T fluorescence amplitudes and FTIR spectroscopy. Tau seeds were detected in postmortem cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from all neuropathologically confirmed PSP and CBD cases but not in controls. CSF from living subjects had weaker seeding activities; however, mean assay responses for cases clinically diagnosed as PSP and CBD/corticobasal syndrome were significantly higher than those from control cases. Altogether, 4R RT-QuIC provides a practical cell-free method of detecting and subtyping pathologic 4R tau aggregates as biomarkers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eri Saijo
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT, USA
| | | | - Shunsuke Koga
- Department of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA
| | - Piero Parchi
- IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, 40139, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Experimental Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, 40138, Bologna, Italy
| | - Irene Litvan
- Department of Neurosciences, Parkinson and Other Movement Disorders Center, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Salvatore Spina
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Adam Boxer
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Julio C Rojas
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Douglas Galasko
- Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Allison Kraus
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT, USA
| | - Marcello Rossi
- IRCCS Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche di Bologna, 40139, Bologna, Italy
| | - Kathy Newell
- Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | | | - Lea T Grinberg
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Pathology, LIM-22, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
| | - William W Seeley
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Byron Caughey
- LPVD, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT, USA.
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20
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Okada K, Hata Y, Takayanagi Y, Takahashi T, Takayanagi I, Nishida N. An Autopsy Case of Preclinical/Early Clinical Pick Disease. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 2019; 78:971-974. [PMID: 31504691 DOI: 10.1093/jnen/nlz077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Here, we report a 74-year-old woman with a long history of schizophrenia but no clinical manifestation of dementia. Cause of death after autopsy was atherosclerotic heart disease. Although neuropathological investigation showed no significant brain atrophy, superficial microvacuolation with neuronal loss was restrictedly detected in the right anterior cingulate gyrus by microscopic examination. Pick bodies (PBs) positive for Bodian and Bielshowsky staining and 3-repeat-tau were detected in frontal and temporal lobes and limbic regions. Prevalence of PBs was most frequent in the right anterior cingulate gyrus and lateral base, followed by other neocortical regions of the frontal lobe, amygdala, and granular layer of the hippocampus. Although the number of glial inclusions was low, ramified astrocytes and various forms of astrocytes with AT8-positive inclusions were also found. Thus, the case may reflect preclinical or very early clinical Pick disease. Distribution of PBs does not necessarily have to be consistent with previously reported preclinical/early clinical Pick disease. These results show that tau pathology in the earlier stage of Pick disease may be heterogeneous, and the anterior cingulate gyrus may be initially affected in Pick disease. Neuropathological examination, including immunohistochemistry without case selection, is useful in identifying clinical and pathological manifestations of Pick disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keitaro Okada
- University of Toyama, Fuculty of Medicine.,Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama
| | - Yukiko Hata
- Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama
| | - Yoichiro Takayanagi
- Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama
| | - Tsutomu Takahashi
- Department of Psychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama
| | - Isao Takayanagi
- Department of Psychiatry, Arisawabashi Hospital, Toyama, Japan
| | - Naoki Nishida
- Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama
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21
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Gibbons GS, Banks RA, Kim B, Changolkar L, Riddle DM, Leight SN, Irwin DJ, Trojanowski JQ, Lee VMY. Detection of Alzheimer Disease (AD)-Specific Tau Pathology in AD and NonAD Tauopathies by Immunohistochemistry With Novel Conformation-Selective Tau Antibodies. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 2019; 77:216-228. [PMID: 29415231 DOI: 10.1093/jnen/nly010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Aggregation of tau into fibrillar structures within the CNS is a pathological hallmark of a clinically heterogeneous set of neurodegenerative diseases termed tauopathies. Unique misfolded conformations of tau, referred to as strains, are hypothesized to underlie the distinct neuroanatomical and cellular distribution of pathological tau aggregates. Here, we report the identification of novel tau monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that selectively bind to an Alzheimer disease (AD)-specific conformation of pathological tau. Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue from various AD and nonAD tauopathies demonstrate selective binding of mAbs GT-7 and GT-38 to AD tau pathologies and absence of immunoreactivity for tau aggregates that are diagnostic of corticobasal degenerations (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and Pick's disease (PiD). In cases with co-occurring AD tauopathy, GT-7 and GT-38 distinguish comorbid AD tau from pathological tau in frontotemporal lobar degeneration characterized by tau inclusions (FTLD-Tau), as confirmed by the presence of both 3 versus 4 microtubule-binding repeat isoforms (3R and 4R tau isoforms, respectively), in AD neurofibrillary tangles but not in the tau aggregates of CBD, PSP, or PiD. These findings support the concept of an AD-specific tau strain. The mAbs described here enable the selective detection of AD tau pathology in nonAD tauopathies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Garrett S Gibbons
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Rachel A Banks
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Bumjin Kim
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Lakshmi Changolkar
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Dawn M Riddle
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Susan N Leight
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - David J Irwin
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - John Q Trojanowski
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Virginia M Y Lee
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging and Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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22
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Panza F, Imbimbo BP, Lozupone M, Greco A, Seripa D, Logroscino G, Daniele A, Colosimo C. Disease-modifying therapies for tauopathies: agents in the pipeline. Expert Rev Neurother 2019; 19:397-408. [PMID: 30973276 DOI: 10.1080/14737175.2019.1606715] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Tauopathies are heterogeneous clinicopathological entities characterized by abnormal neuronal and/or glial inclusions of the microtubule-binding protein tau. Primary tauopathies considered to be diseases correspond to a major class of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) neuropathology (FTLD-Tau), including several forms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) clinical syndromes. Little progress has been made in the past 20 years in developing effective disease-modifying drugs for primary tauopathies and available symptomatic treatments have limited efficacy. Areas covered: Potential disease-modifying drugs in clinical development to slow neuropathological progression of primary tauopathies. Expert opinion: Since the underlying pathology of primary tauopathies consists of abnormal tau protein aggregates, treatments are being developed to interfere with the aggregation process or to promote the clearance of this protein. Unfortunately, disease-modifying treatments remain years away as demonstrated by the recent negative Phase III findings of a tau aggregation inhibitor (LMTM) for treating the behavioral variant of FTD. Further evidence will come from ongoing Phase I/II trials on novel drugs and immunotherapeutics with various targets - prevention of deposition or removal of tau aggregates, inhibition of tau phosphorylation/acetylation, modulation of O-GlcNAcylation, activation of autophagy or ubiquitin-proteasome system pathways, and rescue of selected tau loss of function or suppression of tau gene expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Panza
- a Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Bari "Aldo Moro" , Bari , Italy.,b Department of Clinical Research in Neurology, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain , University of Bari "Aldo Moro", "Pia Fondazione Cardinale G. Panico" , Lecce , Italy.,c Geriatric Unit, Fondazione IRCCS , "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza" , Foggia , Italy
| | - Bruno P Imbimbo
- d Department of Research and Development , Chiesi Farmaceutici , Parma , Italy
| | - Madia Lozupone
- a Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Bari "Aldo Moro" , Bari , Italy
| | - Antonio Greco
- c Geriatric Unit, Fondazione IRCCS , "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza" , Foggia , Italy
| | - Davide Seripa
- c Geriatric Unit, Fondazione IRCCS , "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza" , Foggia , Italy
| | - Giancarlo Logroscino
- a Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Bari "Aldo Moro" , Bari , Italy.,b Department of Clinical Research in Neurology, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain , University of Bari "Aldo Moro", "Pia Fondazione Cardinale G. Panico" , Lecce , Italy
| | - Antonio Daniele
- e Institute of Neurology , Catholic University of Sacred Heart , Rome , Italy.,f Institute of Neurology , Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS , Rome , Italy
| | - Carlo Colosimo
- g Department of Neurological Sciences , Santa Maria University Hospital , Terni , Italy
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23
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Logroscino G, Imbimbo BP, Lozupone M, Sardone R, Capozzo R, Battista P, Zecca C, Dibello V, Giannelli G, Bellomo A, Greco A, Daniele A, Seripa D, Panza F. Promising therapies for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia clinical phenotypes: from symptomatic to disease-modifying drugs. Expert Opin Pharmacother 2019; 20:1091-1107. [PMID: 31002267 DOI: 10.1080/14656566.2019.1598377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a heterogeneous clinical entity that includes several disorders characterized by different cellular mechanisms. Distinctive clinical features in FTD include behavioral, affective, and cognitive symptoms. Unfortunately, little progress has been made over the past 20 years in terms of the development of effective disease-modifying drugs with the currently available symptomatic treatments having limited clinical utility. AREAS COVERED This article reviews the principal pharmacological intervention studies for FTD. These are predominantly randomized clinical trials and include symptomatic treatments and potential disease-modifying drugs. EXPERT OPINION There is insufficient evidence on effective treatments for FTD and studies with better methodological backgrounds are needed. Most studies reporting therapeutic benefits were conducted with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, while anti-dementia drugs have been ineffective in FTD. Since the underlying pathology of FTD mostly consists of abnormal tau protein or TDP-43 aggregates, treatments are being developed to interfere with their aggregation process or with the clearance of these proteins. Furthermore, disease-modifying treatments remain years away as demonstrated by the recent negative Phase III findings of a tau aggregation inhibitor (LMTM) for treating the behavioral variant of FTD. The results from current ongoing Phase I/II trials will hopefully give light to future treatment options.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giancarlo Logroscino
- a Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Bari "Aldo Moro" , Bari , Italy.,b Department of Clinical Research in Neurology, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain , University of Bari "Aldo Moro", "Pia Fondazione Cardinale G. Panico" , Lecce , Italy
| | - Bruno P Imbimbo
- c Department of Research and Development , Chiesi Farmaceutici , Parma , Italy
| | - Madia Lozupone
- a Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Bari "Aldo Moro" , Bari , Italy
| | - Rodolfo Sardone
- d National Institute of Gastroenterology "Saverio de Bellis" , Research Hospital , Castellana Grotte Bari , Italy
| | - Rosa Capozzo
- b Department of Clinical Research in Neurology, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain , University of Bari "Aldo Moro", "Pia Fondazione Cardinale G. Panico" , Lecce , Italy
| | - Petronilla Battista
- e Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri SPA SB, IRCCS , Institute of Cassano Murge , Bari , Italy
| | - Chiara Zecca
- b Department of Clinical Research in Neurology, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain , University of Bari "Aldo Moro", "Pia Fondazione Cardinale G. Panico" , Lecce , Italy
| | - Vittorio Dibello
- d National Institute of Gastroenterology "Saverio de Bellis" , Research Hospital , Castellana Grotte Bari , Italy.,f Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine (DIM), Section of Dentistry , University of Bari AldoMoro , Bari , Italy
| | - Gianluigi Giannelli
- d National Institute of Gastroenterology "Saverio de Bellis" , Research Hospital , Castellana Grotte Bari , Italy
| | - Antonello Bellomo
- g Psychiatric Unit, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine , University of Foggia , Foggia , Italy
| | - Antonio Greco
- h Geriatric Unit , Fondazione IRCCS "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza" , Foggia , Italy
| | - Antonio Daniele
- i Institute of Neurology , Catholic University of Sacred Heart , Rome , Italy.,j Institute of Neurology, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS , Rome , Italy
| | - Davide Seripa
- h Geriatric Unit , Fondazione IRCCS "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza" , Foggia , Italy
| | - Francesco Panza
- a Neurodegenerative Disease Unit, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sense Organs , University of Bari "Aldo Moro" , Bari , Italy.,b Department of Clinical Research in Neurology, Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Aging Brain , University of Bari "Aldo Moro", "Pia Fondazione Cardinale G. Panico" , Lecce , Italy.,d National Institute of Gastroenterology "Saverio de Bellis" , Research Hospital , Castellana Grotte Bari , Italy.,h Geriatric Unit , Fondazione IRCCS "Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza" , Foggia , Italy
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24
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Cho H, Kim HJ, Choi JY, Ryu YH, Lee MS, Na DL, Seo SW, Lyoo CH. 18F-flortaucipir uptake patterns in clinical subtypes of primary progressive aphasia. Neurobiol Aging 2018; 75:187-197. [PMID: 30594046 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.11.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2018] [Revised: 11/14/2018] [Accepted: 11/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
We analyzed 18F-flortaucipir uptake patterns and structural changes in patients with subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) using 18F-flortaucipir positron emission tomography and volumetric magnetic resonance imaging. We enrolled 34 consecutive patients with PPA (10 nonfluent/agrammatic PPA [nfvPPA], 18 semantic variant PPA [svPPA], and 6 logopenic variant PPA [lvPPA], as well as 20 healthy controls, and 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease. 18F-flortaucipir uptake was increased in the frontal cortex and underlying white matter, and subcortical nuclei in the 10 nfvPPA and 8 nfvPPA-amyloid-β (Aβ)- subgroup patients. In the svPPA patients (both the 13 svPPA-Aβ- and 5 svPPA-Aβ+), uptake generally increased in the widespread neocortex with left anterior temporal predominance. 18F-flortaucipir uptake patterns in the 6 lvPPA and the 5 lvPPA-Aβ+ subgroup patients were similar to those seen in the patients with Alzheimer's disease with mild predominance in the left lateral temporal cortex. Cortical thinning in each PPA subtype corresponded with increased 18F-flortaucipir uptake. 18F-flortaucipir uptake patterns and cortical atrophy were distinct and corresponded to areas related to the specific language functions that are impaired in each subtype of PPA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Cho
- Department of Neurology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Hee Jin Kim
- Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Jae Yong Choi
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Division of RI-Convergence Research, Korea Institute Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Young Hoon Ryu
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Myung Sik Lee
- Department of Neurology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Duk L Na
- Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Sang Won Seo
- Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
| | - Chul Hyoung Lyoo
- Department of Neurology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
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25
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Cho H, Seo SW, Choi JY, Lee HS, Ryu YH, Lee MS, Na DL, Kim HJ, Lyoo CH. Predominant subcortical accumulation of 18F-flortaucipir binding in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Neurobiol Aging 2018; 66:112-121. [PMID: 29554554 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.02.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2017] [Revised: 02/13/2018] [Accepted: 02/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is the most common form of frontotemporal dementia, and tau pathology can be found in 40%-50% of bvFTD patients. In this study, we sought to investigate 18F-flortaucipir-binding patterns and their correlates in clinically diagnosed bvFTD patients by comparing with results for Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. We enrolled 20 bvFTD, 20 AD, and 20 age-matched healthy subjects who underwent neuropsychological tests, magnetic resonance imaging, and tau positron emission tomography scans with 18F-flortaucipir. Regional standardized uptake value ratios for the cerebral cortex and underlying white matter were compared between the 2 groups. The bvFTD patients showed increased 18F-flortaucipir binding in the putamen and globus pallidus when compared to the healthy controls. In addition, bvFTD was associated with increased binding in the white matter regions underlying the frontal, anterior cingulate, and insula cortices. The bvFTD patients may exhibit predominantly subcortical 18F-flortaucipir-binding pattern that is distinct from the patterns seen in AD patients. We hypothesize that the clinical characteristics of bvFTD patients may be attributable to the dysfunctional frontal-subcortical networks. However, concerns remain regarding unknown "off-target" binding in the white matter and the basal ganglia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Cho
- Department of Neurology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Sang Won Seo
- Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Jae Yong Choi
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Division of RI-Convergence Research, Korea Institute Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Hye Sun Lee
- Biostatistics Collaboration Unit, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Young Hoon Ryu
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Myung Sik Lee
- Department of Neurology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Duk L Na
- Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Hee Jin Kim
- Departments of Neurology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
| | - Chul Hyoung Lyoo
- Department of Neurology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
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26
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Ambadipudi S, Biernat J, Riedel D, Mandelkow E, Zweckstetter M. Liquid-liquid phase separation of the microtubule-binding repeats of the Alzheimer-related protein Tau. Nat Commun 2017; 8:275. [PMID: 28819146 PMCID: PMC5561136 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00480-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 475] [Impact Index Per Article: 67.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2017] [Accepted: 06/30/2017] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The protein Tau aggregates into tangles in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. In solution, however, Tau is intrinsically disordered, highly soluble, and binds to microtubules. It is still unclear what initiates the conversion from an innocuous phase of high solubility and functionality to solid-like neurotoxic deposits. Here, we show that the microtubule-binding repeats of Tau, which are lysine-rich, undergo liquid–liquid phase separation in solution. Liquid–liquid demixing causes molecular crowding of amyloid-promoting elements of Tau and drives electrostatic coacervation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that three-repeat and four-repeat isoforms of Tau differ in their ability for demixing. Alternative splicing of Tau can thus regulate the formation of Tau-containing membrane-less compartments. In addition, phosphorylation of Tau repeats promotes liquid–liquid phase separation at cellular protein conditions. The combined data propose a mechanism in which liquid droplets formed by the positively charged microtubule-binding domain of Tau undergo coacervation with negatively charged molecules to promote amyloid formation. Tau forms aggregates in the brains of Alzheimer patients. Here, the authors identify conditions, where the microtubule-binding repeats of Tau undergo a phosphorylation-dependent liquid–liquid phase separation, leading to molecular crowding in the formed Tau liquid droplets and characterize them by NMR and other biophysical methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susmitha Ambadipudi
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), von-Siebold-Str. 3a, 37075, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Jacek Biernat
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175, Bonn, Germany
| | - Dietmar Riedel
- Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Eckhard Mandelkow
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), Ludwig-Erhard-Allee 2, 53175, Bonn, Germany.,CAESAR Research Center, Bonn, and MPI for Metabolism Research, Hamburg Outstation, 22607, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Markus Zweckstetter
- Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), von-Siebold-Str. 3a, 37075, Göttingen, Germany. .,Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany. .,Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Göttingen, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 33, 37073, Göttingen, Germany.
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27
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Ikeda C, Yokota O, Miki T, Takenoshita S, Ishizu H, Mori Y, Yamazaki K, Ozaki Y, Ueno SI, Ishihara T, Hasegawa M, Terada S, Yamada N. Pick's disease with neuronal four-repeat tau accumulation in the basal ganglia, brain stem nuclei and cerebellum. Neuropathology 2017; 37:544-559. [DOI: 10.1111/neup.12394] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2017] [Revised: 05/18/2017] [Accepted: 05/22/2017] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Chikako Ikeda
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Okayama Japan
| | - Osamu Yokota
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Okayama Japan
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; Zikei Institute of Psychiatry; Okayama Japan
- Department of Psychiatry; Kinoko Espoir Hospital; Kasaoka Japan
| | - Tomoko Miki
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Okayama Japan
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; Zikei Institute of Psychiatry; Okayama Japan
- Department of Psychiatry; Kinoko Espoir Hospital; Kasaoka Japan
| | - Shintaro Takenoshita
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Okayama Japan
| | - Hideki Ishizu
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology; Zikei Institute of Psychiatry; Okayama Japan
| | - Yoko Mori
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine; Ehime Japan
| | - Kiyohiro Yamazaki
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine; Ehime Japan
| | - Yuki Ozaki
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine; Ehime Japan
| | - Shu-Ichi Ueno
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine; Ehime Japan
| | - Takeshi Ishihara
- Department of Psychiatry; Kawasaki Medical School; Kurashiki Japan
| | - Masato Hasegawa
- Dementia Research Project; Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science; Tokyo Japan
| | - Seishi Terada
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Okayama Japan
| | - Norihito Yamada
- Department of Neuropsychiatry; Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Okayama Japan
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28
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Abstract
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a heterogeneous disorder with distinct clinical phenotypes associated with multiple neuropathologic entities. Presently, the term FTD encompasses clinical disorders that include changes in behavior, language, executive control, and often motor symptoms. The core FTD spectrum disorders include behavioral variant FTD, nonfluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia, and semantic variant PPA. Related FTD disorders include frontotemporal dementia with motor neuron disease, progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome, and corticobasal syndrome. In this article, the authors discuss the clinical presentation, diagnostic criteria, neuropathology, genetics, and treatments of these disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas T Olney
- Department of Neurology, UCSF Memory and Aging Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
| | - Salvatore Spina
- Department of Neurology, UCSF Memory and Aging Center, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Bruce L Miller
- Department of Neurology, UCSF Memory and Aging Center, San Francisco, CA, USA; UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, USA
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29
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Tau prions from Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy patients propagate in cultured cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:E8187-E8196. [PMID: 27911827 PMCID: PMC5167200 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1616344113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 123] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Tau prions are thought to aggregate in the central nervous system, resulting in neurodegeneration. Among the tauopathies, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common, whereas argyrophilic grain disease (AGD), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Pick's disease (PiD), and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) are less prevalent. Brain extracts from deceased individuals with PiD, a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by three-repeat (3R) tau prions, were used to infect HEK293T cells expressing 3R tau fused to yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Extracts from AGD, CBD, and PSP patient samples, which contain four-repeat (4R) tau prions, were transmitted to HEK293 cells expressing 4R tau fused to YFP. These studies demonstrated that prion propagation in HEK cells requires isoform pairing between the infecting prion and the recipient substrate. Interestingly, tau aggregates in AD and CTE, containing both 3R and 4R isoforms, were unable to robustly infect either 3R- or 4R-expressing cells. However, AD and CTE prions were able to replicate in HEK293T cells expressing both 3R and 4R tau. Unexpectedly, increasing the level of 4R isoform expression alone supported the propagation of both AD and CTE prions. These results allowed us to determine the levels of tau prions in AD and CTE brain extracts.
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30
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Arendt T, Stieler JT, Holzer M. Tau and tauopathies. Brain Res Bull 2016; 126:238-292. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2016.08.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 333] [Impact Index Per Article: 41.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2016] [Revised: 08/31/2016] [Accepted: 08/31/2016] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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31
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Mackenzie IRA, Neumann M. Molecular neuropathology of frontotemporal dementia: insights into disease mechanisms from postmortem studies. J Neurochem 2016; 138 Suppl 1:54-70. [PMID: 27306735 DOI: 10.1111/jnc.13588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 221] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2016] [Revised: 02/12/2016] [Accepted: 02/16/2016] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a clinical syndrome with a heterogeneous molecular basis. The past decade has seen the discovery of several new FTD-causing genetic mutations and the identification of many of the relevant pathological proteins. The current neuropathological classification is based on the predominant protein abnormality and allows most cases of FTD to be placed into one of three broad molecular subgroups; frontotemporal lobar degeneration with tau, TDP-43 or FET protein accumulation. This review will describe our current understanding of the molecular basis of FTD, focusing on insights gained from the study of human postmortem tissue, as well as some of the current controversies. Most cases of FTD can be subclassified into one of three broad molecular subgroups based on the predominant protein that accumulates as pathological cellular inclusions. Understanding the associated pathogenic mechanisms and recognizing these FTD molecular subtypes in vivo will likely be crucial for the development and use of targeted therapies. This article is part of the Frontotemporal Dementia special issue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian R A Mackenzie
- Department of Pathology, University of British Columbia and Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Manuela Neumann
- Department of Neuropathology, University of Tübingen and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Tübingen, Germany
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Tsai RM, Boxer AL. Therapy and clinical trials in frontotemporal dementia: past, present, and future. J Neurochem 2016; 138 Suppl 1:211-21. [PMID: 27306957 DOI: 10.1111/jnc.13640] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2016] [Revised: 04/06/2016] [Accepted: 04/08/2016] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a common form of dementia with heterogeneous clinical presentations and distinct clinical syndromes. This article will review currently available therapies for FTD, its related disorders and their clinical evidence. It will also discuss recent advancements in FTD pathophysiology, treatment development, biomarker advancement and their relation to recently completed or currently ongoing clinical trials as well as future implications. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a type of dementia with distinct clinical syndromes. Current treatments involve off-label use of medications for symptomatic management and cannot modify disease course. Advancements in FTD pathophysiology, genetics, and biomarkers have led to development of small molecules targeting the underlying pathology in hopes of achieving a disease-modifying effect. This article will review current therapies for FTD, discuss advancements in FTD pathophysiology, therapy development, biomarker advancement, their relation to recent clinical trials and future implications. This article is part of the Frontotemporal Dementia special issue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard M Tsai
- Assistant Adjunct Professor of Neurology, University of California San Francisco Department of Neurology, San Francisco, California, USA
| | - Adam L Boxer
- Associate Professor of Neurology, University of California San Francisco Department of Neurology, San Francisco, California, USA
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Irwin DJ, Brettschneider J, McMillan CT, Cooper F, Olm C, Arnold SE, Van Deerlin VM, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Lee EB, Lee VMY, Grossman M, Trojanowski JQ. Deep clinical and neuropathological phenotyping of Pick disease. Ann Neurol 2015; 79:272-87. [PMID: 26583316 DOI: 10.1002/ana.24559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 141] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2015] [Revised: 11/02/2015] [Accepted: 11/15/2015] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To characterize sequential patterns of regional neuropathology and clinical symptoms in a well-characterized cohort of 21 patients with autopsy-confirmed Pick disease. METHODS Detailed neuropathological examination using 70μm and traditional 6μm sections was performed using thioflavin-S staining and immunohistochemistry for phosphorylated tau, 3R and 4R tau isoforms, ubiquitin, and C-terminally truncated tau. Patterns of regional tau deposition were correlated with clinical data. In a subset of cases (n = 5), converging evidence was obtained using antemortem neuroimaging measures of gray and white matter integrity. RESULTS Four sequential patterns of pathological tau deposition were identified starting in frontotemporal limbic/paralimbic and neocortical regions (phase I). Sequential involvement was seen in subcortical structures, including basal ganglia, locus coeruleus, and raphe nuclei (phase II), followed by primary motor cortex and precerebellar nuclei (phase III) and finally visual cortex in the most severe (phase IV) cases. Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia was the predominant clinical phenotype (18 of 21), but all patients eventually developed a social comportment disorder. Pathological tau phases reflected the evolution of clinical symptoms and degeneration on serial antemortem neuroimaging, directly correlated with disease duration and inversely correlated with brain weight at autopsy. The majority of neuronal and glial tau inclusions were 3R tau-positive and 4R tau-negative in sporadic cases. There was a relative abundance of mature tau pathology markers in frontotemporal limbic/paralimbic regions compared to neocortical regions. INTERPRETATION Pick disease tau neuropathology may originate in limbic/paralimbic cortices. The patterns of tau pathology observed here provide novel insights into the natural history and biology of tau-mediated neurodegeneration.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Irwin
- University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.,Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | | | - Corey T McMillan
- University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Felicia Cooper
- University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.,Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Christopher Olm
- University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Steven E Arnold
- Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Vivianna M Van Deerlin
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - William W Seeley
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Bruce L Miller
- Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
| | - Edward B Lee
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.,Translational Neuropathology Research Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Virginia M-Y Lee
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Murray Grossman
- University of Pennsylvania Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - John Q Trojanowski
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
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Irwin DJ, Byrne MD, McMillan CT, Cooper F, Arnold SE, Lee EB, Van Deerlin VM, Xie SX, Lee VMY, Grossman M, Trojanowski JQ. Semi-Automated Digital Image Analysis of Pick's Disease and TDP-43 Proteinopathy. J Histochem Cytochem 2015; 64:54-66. [PMID: 26538548 DOI: 10.1369/0022155415614303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2015] [Accepted: 10/03/2015] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Digital image analysis of histology sections provides reliable, high-throughput methods for neuropathological studies but data is scant in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), which has an added challenge of study due to morphologically diverse pathologies. Here, we describe a novel method of semi-automated digital image analysis in FTLD subtypes including: Pick's disease (PiD, n=11) with tau-positive intracellular inclusions and neuropil threads, and TDP-43 pathology type C (FTLD-TDPC, n=10), defined by TDP-43-positive aggregates predominantly in large dystrophic neurites. To do this, we examined three FTLD-associated cortical regions: mid-frontal gyrus (MFG), superior temporal gyrus (STG) and anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) by immunohistochemistry. We used a color deconvolution process to isolate signal from the chromogen and applied both object detection and intensity thresholding algorithms to quantify pathological burden. We found object-detection algorithms had good agreement with gold-standard manual quantification of tau- and TDP-43-positive inclusions. Our sampling method was reliable across three separate investigators and we obtained similar results in a pilot analysis using open-source software. Regional comparisons using these algorithms finds differences in regional anatomic disease burden between PiD and FTLD-TDP not detected using traditional ordinal scale data, suggesting digital image analysis is a powerful tool for clinicopathological studies in morphologically diverse FTLD syndromes.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Irwin
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (DJI, MDB, CTM, FC, MG)
| | - Matthew D Byrne
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (DJI, MDB, CTM, FC, MG)
| | - Corey T McMillan
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (DJI, MDB, CTM, FC, MG)
| | - Felicia Cooper
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (DJI, MDB, CTM, FC, MG)
| | - Steven E Arnold
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine(DJI, MDB, FC, SEA, EBL, VMVD, VML, JQT)
| | - Edward B Lee
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine(DJI, MDB, FC, SEA, EBL, VMVD, VML, JQT)
| | - Vivianna M Van Deerlin
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine(DJI, MDB, FC, SEA, EBL, VMVD, VML, JQT)
| | - Sharon X Xie
- Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology ,University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SXX)
| | - Virginia M-Y Lee
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine(DJI, MDB, FC, SEA, EBL, VMVD, VML, JQT)
| | - Murray Grossman
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (DJI, MDB, CTM, FC, MG)
| | - John Q Trojanowski
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research,Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine(DJI, MDB, FC, SEA, EBL, VMVD, VML, JQT)
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35
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Kovacs GG. Invited review: Neuropathology of tauopathies: principles and practice. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 2015; 41:3-23. [PMID: 25495175 DOI: 10.1111/nan.12208] [Citation(s) in RCA: 350] [Impact Index Per Article: 38.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2014] [Accepted: 12/09/2014] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Tauopathies are clinically, morphologically and biochemically heterogeneous neurodegenerative diseases characterized by the deposition of abnormal tau protein in the brain. The neuropathological phenotypes are distinguished based on the involvement of different anatomical areas, cell types and presence of distinct isoforms of tau in the pathological deposits. The nomenclature of primary tauopathies overlaps with the modern classification of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neuropathological phenotypes comprise Pick's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, argyrophilic grain disease, primary age-related tauopathy, formerly called also as neurofibrillary tangle-only dementia, and a recently characterized entity called globular glial tauopathy. Mutations in the gene encoding the microtubule-associated protein tau are associated with frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17. In addition, further neurodegenerative conditions with diverse aetiologies may be associated with tau pathologies. Thus, the spectrum of tau pathologies and tauopathy entities expands beyond the traditionally discussed disease forms. Detailed multidisciplinary studies are still required to understand their significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- G G Kovacs
- Institute of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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36
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Chen C, Zhou W, Lv Y, Shi Q, Wang J, Xiao K, Chen LN, Zhang BY, Dong XP. The Levels of Tau Isoforms Containing Exon-2 and Exon-10 Segments Increased in the Cerebrospinal Fluids of the Patients with Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Mol Neurobiol 2015; 53:3999-4009. [PMID: 26188647 DOI: 10.1007/s12035-015-9348-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2015] [Accepted: 07/07/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The alteration of protein tau in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) has been widely evaluated, possessing a significant diagnostic value for CJD. With the biotin-labeled tau-exon-specific mAbs, direct ELISA methods were established and the levels of tau isoforms containing exon-2 and exon-10 segments in CSF of the patients with various human prion diseases and in brain tissues of scrapie-infected animals were evaluated. The results showed that the levels of tau, especially containing four repeats in microtubule binding domain, were increased in the CSF samples of the patients with sporadic CJD (sCJD). Using the unlabeled (cold) mixed exon-specific mAbs, a competitive tau ELISA was conducted based on a commercial tau kit. It revealed that the majority of the increased tau in the CSF of sCJD cases was derived from the tau isoforms with exon-2 and exon-10 segments. Increases of CSF tau isoforms with exon-2 and exon-10 segments were also observed in the patients of E200K and T188K genetic CJD (gCJD), but not in the cases of fatal familiar insomnia (FFI). The increasing levels of tau isoforms with exon-2 and exon-10 segments in the group of sCJD correlated well with the positive 14-3-3 in CSF. Additionally, the similar alterative profiles of tau isoforms with exon-2 and exon-10 segments were also observed in the brain tissues of scrapie-infected rodents and a sCJD patient. Our data here propose the tau isoforms with exon-2 and exon-10 segments increase in CSF of sCJD and some types of gCJD, which may help to understand the physiological metabolism and pathological significance of various tau isoforms in the pathogenesis of prion diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cao Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Wei Zhou
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yan Lv
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Qi Shi
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Jing Wang
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Kang Xiao
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Li-Na Chen
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Bao-Yun Zhang
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiao-Ping Dong
- State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases (Zhejiang University), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China. .,Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
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Atypical multiple system atrophy is a new subtype of frontotemporal lobar degeneration: frontotemporal lobar degeneration associated with α-synuclein. Acta Neuropathol 2015; 130:93-105. [PMID: 25962793 DOI: 10.1007/s00401-015-1442-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2015] [Revised: 05/03/2015] [Accepted: 05/04/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a sporadic neurodegenerative disease clinically characterized by cerebellar signs, parkinsonism, and autonomic dysfunction. Pathologically, MSA is an α-synucleinopathy affecting striatonigral and olivopontocerebellar systems, while neocortical and limbic involvement is usually minimal. In this study, we describe four patients with atypical MSA with clinical features consistent with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), including two with corticobasal syndrome, one with progressive non-fluent aphasia, and one with behavioral variant FTD. None had autonomic dysfunction. All had frontotemporal atrophy and severe limbic α-synuclein neuronal pathology. The neuronal inclusions were heterogeneous, but included Pick body-like inclusions. The latter were strongly associated with neuronal loss in the hippocampus and amygdala. Unlike typical Pick bodies, the neuronal inclusions were positive on Gallyas silver stain and negative on tau immunohistochemistry. In comparison to 34 typical MSA cases, atypical MSA had significantly more neuronal inclusions in anteromedial temporal lobe and limbic structures. While uncommon, our findings suggest that MSA may present clinically and pathologically as a frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). We suggest that this may represent a novel subtype of FTLD associated with α-synuclein (FTLD-synuclein).
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Irwin DJ, Cairns NJ, Grossman M, McMillan CT, Lee EB, Van Deerlin VM, Lee VMY, Trojanowski JQ. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration: defining phenotypic diversity through personalized medicine. Acta Neuropathol 2015; 129:469-91. [PMID: 25549971 PMCID: PMC4369168 DOI: 10.1007/s00401-014-1380-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 199] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2014] [Revised: 12/18/2014] [Accepted: 12/20/2014] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) comprises two main classes of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by neuronal/glial proteinaceous inclusions (i.e., proteinopathies) including tauopathies (i.e., FTLD-Tau) and TDP-43 proteinopathies (i.e., FTLD-TDP) while other very rare forms of FTLD are known such as FTLD with FUS pathology (FTLD-FUS). This review focuses mainly on FTLD-Tau and FLTD-TDP, which may present as several clinical syndromes: a behavioral/dysexecutive syndrome (behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia); language disorders (primary progressive aphasia variants); and motor disorders (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy syndrome). There is considerable heterogeneity in clinical presentations of underlying neuropathology and current clinical criteria do not reliably predict underlying proteinopathies ante-mortem. In contrast, molecular etiologies of hereditary FTLD are consistently associated with specific proteinopathies. These include MAPT mutations with FTLD-Tau and GRN, C9orf72, VCP and TARDBP with FTLD-TDP. The last decade has seen a rapid expansion in our knowledge of the molecular pathologies associated with this clinically and neuropathologically heterogeneous group of FTLD diseases. Moreover, in view of current limitations to reliably diagnose specific FTLD neuropathologies prior to autopsy, we summarize the current state of the science in FTLD biomarker research including neuroimaging, biofluid and genetic analyses. We propose that combining several of these biomarker modalities will improve diagnostic specificity in FTLD through a personalized medicine approach. The goals of these efforts are to enhance power for clinical trials focused on slowing or preventing progression of spread of tau, TDP-43 and other FTLD-associated pathologies and work toward the goal of defining clinical endophenotypes of FTD.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Irwin
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Nigel J. Cairns
- Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
| | - Murray Grossman
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Corey T. McMillan
- Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Edward B. Lee
- Translational Neuropathology Research Laboratory, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Vivianna M. Van Deerlin
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Virginia M.-Y. Lee
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - John Q. Trojanowski
- Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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Boluda S, Iba M, Zhang B, Raible KM, Lee VMY, Trojanowski JQ. Differential induction and spread of tau pathology in young PS19 tau transgenic mice following intracerebral injections of pathological tau from Alzheimer's disease or corticobasal degeneration brains. Acta Neuropathol 2015; 129:221-37. [PMID: 25534024 DOI: 10.1007/s00401-014-1373-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 185] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2014] [Revised: 12/04/2014] [Accepted: 12/04/2014] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Filamentous tau pathologies are hallmark lesions of several neurodegenerative tauopathies including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) which show cell type-specific and topographically distinct tau inclusions. Growing evidence supports templated transmission of tauopathies through functionally interconnected neuroanatomical pathways suggesting that different self-propagating strains of pathological tau could account for the diverse manifestations of neurodegenerative tauopathies. Here, we describe the rapid and distinct cell type-specific spread of pathological tau following intracerebral injections of CBD or AD brain extracts enriched in pathological tau (designated CBD-Tau and AD-Tau, respectively) in young human mutant P301S tau transgenic (Tg) mice (line PS19) ~6-9 months before they show onset of mutant tau transgene-induced tau pathology. At 1 month post-injection of CBD-Tau, tau inclusions developed predominantly in oligodendrocytes of the fimbria and white matter near the injection sites with infrequent intraneuronal tau aggregates. In contrast, injections of AD-Tau in young PS19 mice induced tau pathology predominantly in neuronal perikarya with little or no oligodendrocyte involvement 1 month post-injection. With longer post-injection survival intervals of up to 6 months, CBD-Tau- and AD-Tau-induced tau pathology spread to different brain regions distant from the injection sites while maintaining the cell type-specific pattern noted above. Finally, CA3 neuron loss was detected 3 months post-injection of AD-Tau but not CBD-Tau. Thus, AD-Tau and CBD-Tau represent specific pathological tau strains that spread differentially and may underlie distinct clinical and pathological features of these two tauopathies. Hence, these strains could become targets to develop disease-modifying therapies for CBD and AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susana Boluda
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, 3600 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-4283, USA
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Irwin DJ, McMillan CT, Suh E, Powers J, Rascovsky K, Wood EM, Toledo JB, Arnold SE, Lee VMY, Van Deerlin VM, Trojanowski JQ, Grossman M. Myelin oligodendrocyte basic protein and prognosis in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia. Neurology 2014; 83:502-9. [PMID: 24994843 DOI: 10.1212/wnl.0000000000000668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To determine the prognostic utility of tauopathy-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in sporadic behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). METHODS Eighty-one patients with sporadic bvFTD were genotyped for tauopathy-associated SNPs at rs8070723 (microtubule-associated protein tau [MAPT]) and rs1768208 (myelin-associated oligodendrocyte basic protein [MOBP]). We performed a retrospective case-control study comparing age at onset and disease duration between carriers of ≥1 polymorphism allele and noncarriers for these SNPs. Subanalyses were performed for autopsied subgroups with tauopathy (n = 20) and TDP-43 proteinopathy (n = 12). To identify a potential biological basis for disease duration, neuroimaging measures of white matter integrity were evaluated (n = 37). RESULTS Carriers of risk allele (T) in rs1768208 (i.e., MOBP RA+) had a shorter median disease duration (TC/TT = 5.5 years, CC = 9.5 years; p = 0.02). This was also found in the subset of cases with autopsy-confirmed tauopathies (p = 0.04) but not with TDP-43 proteinopathies (p > 0.1). By comparison, polymorphisms at rs8070723 (MAPT) had no effect on disease duration (p > 0.1), although carriers of protective allele (G) in rs8070723 had a younger median age at onset (AG/GG = 54.5 years, AA = 58 years; p < 0.01). MOBP RA+ patients had increased radial diffusivity in the superior corona radiata and midbrain, and reduced fractional anisotropy in the superior corona radiata as well as superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi compared with noncarriers (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS The rs1768208 risk polymorphism in MOBP may have prognostic value in bvFTD. MOBP RA+ patients have more severe white matter degeneration in bvFTD that may contribute to shorter disease duration. Future studies are needed to help confirm these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Irwin
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
| | - Corey T McMillan
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - EunRan Suh
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - John Powers
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Katya Rascovsky
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Elisabeth M Wood
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Jon B Toledo
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Steven E Arnold
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Virginia M-Y Lee
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Vivianna M Van Deerlin
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - John Q Trojanowski
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
| | - Murray Grossman
- From the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology (D.J.I., C.T.M., J.P., K.R., E.M.W., M.G.); Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Institute on Aging, Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (D.J.I., C.T.M., E.S., E.M.W., J.B.T., S.E.A., V.M.-Y.L., V.M.V.D., J.Q.T., M.G.); Penn Memory Center, Department of Neurology (S.E.A.); and Brain-Behavior Laboratory, Departments of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine (S.E.A.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
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Arnold SE, Toledo JB, Appleby DH, Xie SX, Wang LS, Baek Y, Wolk DA, Lee EB, Miller BL, Lee VMY, Trojanowski JQ. Comparative survey of the topographical distribution of signature molecular lesions in major neurodegenerative diseases. J Comp Neurol 2014; 521:4339-55. [PMID: 23881776 DOI: 10.1002/cne.23430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2013] [Revised: 07/07/2013] [Accepted: 07/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
An understanding of the anatomic distributions of major neurodegenerative disease lesions is important to appreciate the differential clinical profiles of these disorders and to serve as neuropathological standards for emerging molecular neuroimaging methods. To address these issues, here we present a comparative survey of the topographical distribution of the defining molecular neuropathological lesions among 10 neurodegenerative diseases from a large and uniformly assessed brain collection. Ratings of pathological severity in 16 brain regions from 671 cases with diverse neurodegenerative diseases are summarized and analyzed. These include: 1) amyloid-β and tau lesions in Alzheimer's disease; 2) tau lesions in three other tauopathies including Pick's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy and corticobasal degeneration; 3) α-synuclein inclusion ratings in four synucleinopathies including Parkinson's disease, Parkinson's disease with dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy; and 4) TDP-43 lesions in two TDP-43 proteinopathies, including frontotemporal lobar degeneration associated with TDP-43 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The data presented graphically and topographically confirm and extend previous pathological anatomic descriptions and statistical comparisons highlight the lesion distributions that either overlap or distinguish the diseases in each molecular disease category.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven E Arnold
- Penn Memory Center, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104
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Agosta F, Galantucci S, Canu E, Cappa SF, Magnani G, Franceschi M, Falini A, Comi G, Filippi M. Disruption of structural connectivity along the dorsal and ventral language pathways in patients with nonfluent and semantic variant primary progressive aphasia: a DT MRI study and a literature review. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2013; 127:157-66. [PMID: 23890877 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.06.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2012] [Revised: 05/10/2013] [Accepted: 06/24/2013] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Nonfluent (NFV) and semantic (SV) variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) are associated with distinct patterns of focal cortical atrophy and underlying pathology. Previous diffusion tensor (DT) MRI studies showed a more ventral white matter (WM) involvement in SV patients and a more widespread frontal involvement in NFV. Aim of this manuscript is twofold. First, we wished to provide a brief state-of-the-art review on WM damage in PPA. Second, we used DT MRI to assess the topography of WM microstructural damage along dorsal and ventral language pathways and corpus callosum in patients with NFV and SV. Our findings show that the two PPA variants share an overlapping pattern of dorsal and ventral pathway abnormalities. In addition to these common abnormalities, variant-specific WM changes were also found, with NFV patients having a more severe damage to the dorsal (fronto-parietal) WM connections within the left superior longitudinal fasciculus/arcuate and SV patients showing a greater left ventral tract involvement (inferior longitudinal and uncinate fasciculi). These findings offer evidence that both dorsal and ventral language networks may contribute to the relatively selective deficits in NFV and SV patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Federica Agosta
- Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy
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43
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Irwin DJ, Cohen TJ, Grossman M, Arnold SE, McCarty-Wood E, Van Deerlin VM, Lee VMY, Trojanowski JQ. Acetylated tau neuropathology in sporadic and hereditary tauopathies. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY 2013; 183:344-51. [PMID: 23885714 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2013.04.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2013] [Revised: 04/16/2013] [Accepted: 04/25/2013] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
We have recently shown acetylation of tau at lysine residue 280 (AC-K280) to be a disease-specific modification in Alzheimer disease (AD), corticobasal degeneration, and progressive supranuclear palsy, likely representing a major regulatory tau modification. Herein, we extend our observations using IHC with a polyclonal antibody specific for AC-K280. Thirty brain regions were examined in argyrophilic grain disease (AGD; n = 5), tangle-predominant senile dementia (TPSD; n = 5), Pick disease (n = 4), familial AD (FAD; n = 2; PSEN1 p.G206A and p.S170P), and frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome-17 (FTDP-17; n = 2; MAPT p.P301L and IVS10 + 16). All AGD, TPSD, FAD, and FTDP-17 cases had significant AC-K280 reactivity that was similar in severity and distribution to phosphorylated tau. AC-K280 robustly labeled grain pathological characteristics in AGD and was predominantly associated with thioflavin-S-positive neurofibrillary tangles and less reactive in neuropil threads and extracellular tangles in TPSD and FAD. Thioflavin-S-negative neuronal and glial inclusions of patients with FTDP-17 were robustly AC-K280 reactive. A low degree of AC-K280 was found in a subset of 4-repeat tau-containing lesions in Pick disease. AC-K280 is a prominent feature of both neuronal and glial tau aggregations in tauopathies of various etiologies. The close association of AC-K280 with amyloid and pre-amyloid conformations of tau suggests a potential role in tangle maturation and, thus, could serve as a useful biomarker or therapeutic target in a variety of tauopathies.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Irwin
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4283, USA
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44
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45
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Noble W, Hanger DP, Miller CCJ, Lovestone S. The importance of tau phosphorylation for neurodegenerative diseases. Front Neurol 2013; 4:83. [PMID: 23847585 PMCID: PMC3696910 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2013.00083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 263] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2013] [Accepted: 06/14/2013] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Fibrillar deposits of highly phosphorylated tau are a key pathological feature of several neurodegenerative tauopathies including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and some frontotemporal dementias. Increasing evidence suggests that the presence of these end-stage neurofibrillary lesions do not cause neuronal loss, but rather that alterations to soluble tau proteins induce neurodegeneration. In particular, aberrant tau phosphorylation is acknowledged to be a key disease process, influencing tau structure, distribution, and function in neurons. Although typically described as a cytosolic protein that associates with microtubules and regulates axonal transport, several additional functions of tau have recently been demonstrated, including roles in DNA stabilization, and synaptic function. Most recently, studies examining the trans-synaptic spread of tau pathology in disease models have suggested a potential role for extracellular tau in cell signaling pathways intrinsic to neurodegeneration. Here we review the evidence showing that tau phosphorylation plays a key role in neurodegenerative tauopathies. We also comment on the tractability of altering phosphorylation-dependent tau functions for therapeutic intervention in AD and related disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wendy Noble
- Department of Neuroscience, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry , London , UK
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46
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Sajjadi SA, Acosta-Cabronero J, Patterson K, Diaz-de-Grenu LZ, Williams GB, Nestor PJ. Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging for single subject diagnosis in neurodegenerative diseases. Brain 2013; 136:2253-61. [DOI: 10.1093/brain/awt118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
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47
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Kovacs GG, Rozemuller AJM, van Swieten JC, Gelpi E, Majtenyi K, Al-Sarraj S, Troakes C, Bódi I, King A, Hortobágyi T, Esiri MM, Ansorge O, Giaccone G, Ferrer I, Arzberger T, Bogdanovic N, Nilsson T, Leisser I, Alafuzoff I, Ironside JW, Kretzschmar H, Budka H. Neuropathology of the hippocampus in FTLD-Tau with Pick bodies: a study of the BrainNet Europe Consortium. Neuropathol Appl Neurobiol 2013; 39:166-78. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2990.2012.01272.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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48
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Abstract
Six tau isoforms differing in their affinity for microtubules are produced by alternative splicing from the MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau) gene in adult human brain. Several MAPT mutations causing the familial tauopathy, FTDP-17 (frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17), affect alternative splicing of exon 10, encoding a microtubule-binding motif. Advanced RNA analysis methods have suggested that levels of exon 10-containing MAPT mRNA are elevated in Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, the MAPT H1 haplotype, associated with Alzheimer's disease, promotes exon 10 inclusion in MAPT mRNA. Thus an accurate regulation of tau alternative splicing is critical for the maintenance of neuronal viability, and its alteration might be a contributing factor to Alzheimer's disease. Tau alternative splicing could represent a target for therapeutic intervention to delay the progression of pathology in familial as well as sporadic tauopathies.
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Villemagne VL, Furumoto S, Fodero-Tavoletti M, Harada R, Mulligan RS, Kudo Y, Masters CL, Yanai K, Rowe CC, Okamura N. The challenges of tau imaging. FUTURE NEUROLOGY 2012. [DOI: 10.2217/fnl.12.34] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
In vivo imaging of tau pathology will provide new insights into tau deposition in the human brain, thus facilitating research into causes, diagnosis and treatment of major dementias, such as Alzheimer’s disease, or some variants of frontotemporal lobar degeneration, in which tau plays a role. Tau imaging poses several challenges, some related to the singularities of tau aggregation, and others related to radiotracer design. Several groups around the world are working on the development of imaging agents that will allow the in vivo assessment of tau deposition in aging and in neurodegeneration. Development of a tau imaging tracer will enable researchers to noninvasively examine the degree and extent of tau pathology in the brain, quantify changes in tau deposition over time, evaluate its relation to cognition and assess the efficacy of anti-tau therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Victor L Villemagne
- Department of Nuclear Medicine & Centre for PET, Austin Health, 145 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Shozo Furumoto
- Department of Pharmacology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
| | | | - Ryuichi Harada
- Department of Pharmacology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
| | - Rachel S Mulligan
- Department of Nuclear Medicine & Centre for PET, Austin Health, 145 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Yukitsuka Kudo
- Innovation of New Biomedical Engineering Center, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
| | | | - Kazuhiko Yanai
- Department of Pharmacology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
| | - Chistopher C Rowe
- Department of Nuclear Medicine & Centre for PET, Austin Health, 145 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Nobuyuki Okamura
- Department of Pharmacology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
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Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration: New Understanding Brings New Approaches. Neuroimaging Clin N Am 2012; 22:83-97, viii. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nic.2011.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
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