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Dujardin S, Fernandes A, Bannon R, Commins C, De Los Santos M, Kamath TV, Hayashi M, Hyman BT. Tau propagation is dependent on the genetic background of mouse strains. Brain Commun 2022; 4:fcac048. [PMID: 35350555 PMCID: PMC8952249 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcac048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 01/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Progressive cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease correlates closely with the spread of tau protein aggregation across neural networks of the cortical mantle. We tested the hypothesis that heritable factors may influence the rate of propagation of tau pathology across brain regions in a model system, taking advantage of well-defined genetically diverse background strains in mice. We virally expressed human tau locally in the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex neurons and monitored the cell-to-cell tau protein spread by immunolabelling. Interestingly, some strains showed more tau spreading than others while tau misfolding accumulated at the same rate in all tested mouse strains. Genetic factors may contribute to tau pathology progression across brain networks, which could help refine mechanisms underlying tau cell-to-cell transfer and accumulation, and potentially provide targets for understanding patient-to-patient variability in the rate of disease progression in Alzheimer's disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Dujardin
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Analiese Fernandes
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Riley Bannon
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Caitlin Commins
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Mark De Los Santos
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Tarun V. Kamath
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | | | - Bradley T. Hyman
- Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
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Suárez-García DMA, Birba A, Zimerman M, Diazgranados JA, Lopes da Cunha P, Ibáñez A, Grisales-Cárdenas JS, Cardona JF, García AM. Rekindling Action Language: A Neuromodulatory Study on Parkinson's Disease Patients. Brain Sci 2021; 11:887. [PMID: 34356122 PMCID: PMC8301982 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11070887] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2021] [Accepted: 06/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Impairments of action semantics (a cognitive domain that critically engages motor brain networks) are pervasive in early Parkinson's disease (PD). However, no study has examined whether action semantic skills in persons with this disease can be influenced by non-invasive neuromodulation. Here, we recruited 22 PD patients and performed a five-day randomized, blinded, sham-controlled study to assess whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) over the primary motor cortex, combined with cognitive training, can boost action-concept processing. On day 1, participants completed a picture-word association (PWA) task involving action-verb and object-noun conditions. They were then randomly assigned to either an atDCS (n = 11, 2 mA for 20 m) or a sham tDCS (n = 11, 2 mA for 30 s) group and performed an online PWA practice over three days. On day 5, they repeated the initial protocol. Relative to sham tDCS, the atDCS group exhibited faster reaction times for action (as opposed to object) concepts in the post-stimulation test. This result was exclusive to the atDCS group and held irrespective of the subjects' cognitive, executive, and motor skills, further attesting to its specificity. Our findings suggest that action-concept deficits in PD are distinctively grounded in motor networks and might be countered by direct neuromodulation of such circuits. Moreover, they provide new evidence for neurosemantic models and inform a thriving agenda in the embodied cognition framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana M. A. Suárez-García
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia; (D.M.A.S.-G.); (J.S.G.-C.)
| | - Agustina Birba
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
| | - Máximo Zimerman
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
| | - Jesús A. Diazgranados
- Centro Médico de Atención Neurológica “Neurólogos de Occidente”, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia;
| | - Pamela Lopes da Cunha
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT), Buenos Aires C1425FQD, Argentina
| | - Agustín Ibáñez
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
- Trinity College Dublin (TCD), D02R590 Dublin 2, Ireland
- Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 8320000, Chile
| | - Johan S. Grisales-Cárdenas
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia; (D.M.A.S.-G.); (J.S.G.-C.)
| | - Juan Felipe Cardona
- Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Valle, Santiago de Cali 76001, Colombia; (D.M.A.S.-G.); (J.S.G.-C.)
| | - Adolfo M. García
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center (CNC), Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires B1644BID, Argentina; (A.B.); (M.Z.); (P.L.d.C.); (A.I.)
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Buenos Aires C1033AAJ, Argentina
- Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI), University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
- Trinity College Dublin (TCD), D02R590 Dublin 2, Ireland
- Faculty of Education, National University of Cuyo (UNCuyo), Mendoza M5502GKA, Argentina
- Departamento de Lingüística y Literatura, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago 9170020, Chile
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Altendahl M, Cotter DL, Staffaroni AM, Wolf A, Mumford P, Cobigo Y, Casaletto K, Elahi F, Ruoff L, Javed S, Bettcher BM, Fox E, You M, Saloner R, Neylan TC, Kramer JH, Walsh CM. REM sleep is associated with white matter integrity in cognitively healthy, older adults. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0235395. [PMID: 32645032 PMCID: PMC7347149 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 06/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
There is increasing awareness that self-reported sleep abnormalities are negatively associated with brain structure and function in older adults. Less is known, however, about how objectively measured sleep associates with brain structure. We objectively measured at-home sleep to investigate how sleep architecture and sleep quality related to white matter microstructure in older adults. 43 cognitively normal, older adults underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a sleep assessment within a six-month period. Participants completed the PSQI, a subjective measure of sleep quality, and used an at-home sleep recorder (Zeo, Inc.) to measure total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), and percent time in light sleep (LS), deep sleep (DS), and REM sleep (RS). Multiple regressions predicted fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) of the corpus callosum as a function of total PSQI score, TST, SE, and percent of time spent in each sleep stage, controlling for age and sex. Greater percent time spent in RS was significantly associated with higher FA (β = 0.41, p = 0.007) and lower MD (β = -0.30, p = 0.03). Total PSQI score, TST, SE, and time spent in LS or DS were not significantly associated with FA or MD (p>0.13). Percent time spent in REM sleep, but not quantity of light and deep sleep or subjective/objective measures of sleep quality, positively predicted white matter microstructure integrity. Our results highlight an important link between REM sleep and brain health that has the potential to improve sleep interventions in the elderly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Altendahl
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Devyn L. Cotter
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Adam M. Staffaroni
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Amy Wolf
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Paige Mumford
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Yann Cobigo
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Kaitlin Casaletto
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Fanny Elahi
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Leslie Ruoff
- San Francisco VA Medical Center, Stress & Health Research Program, Department of Mental Health, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Samirah Javed
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Brianne M. Bettcher
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Rocky Mountain Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, United States of America
| | - Emily Fox
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Michelle You
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Rowan Saloner
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Thomas C. Neylan
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
- San Francisco VA Medical Center, Stress & Health Research Program, Department of Mental Health, San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Joel H. Kramer
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
| | - Christine M. Walsh
- Memory & Aging Center, Department of Neurology, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America
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Lin Y, McCarty J, Rauch JN, Delaney KT, Kosik KS, Fredrickson GH, Shea JE, Han S. Narrow equilibrium window for complex coacervation of tau and RNA under cellular conditions. eLife 2019; 8:e42571. [PMID: 30950394 PMCID: PMC6450672 DOI: 10.7554/elife.42571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2018] [Accepted: 03/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The mechanism that leads to liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) of the tau protein, whose pathological aggregation is implicated in neurodegenerative disorders, is not well understood. Establishing a phase diagram that delineates the boundaries of phase co-existence is key to understanding whether LLPS is an equilibrium or intermediate state. We demonstrate that tau and RNA reversibly form complex coacervates. While the equilibrium phase diagram can be fit to an analytical theory, a more advanced model is investigated through field theoretic simulations (FTS) that provided direct insight into the thermodynamic driving forces of tau LLPS. Together, experiment and simulation reveal that tau-RNA LLPS is stable within a narrow equilibrium window near physiological conditions over experimentally tunable parameters including temperature, salt and tau concentrations, and is entropy-driven. Guided by our phase diagram, we show that tau can be driven toward LLPS under live cell coculturing conditions with rationally chosen experimental parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanxian Lin
- Biomolecular Science and EngineeringUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - James McCarty
- Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - Jennifer N Rauch
- Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental BiologyUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
- Neuroscience Research InstituteUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - Kris T Delaney
- Materials Research LaboratoryUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - Kenneth S Kosik
- Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental BiologyUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
- Neuroscience Research InstituteUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - Glenn H Fredrickson
- Materials Research LaboratoryUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
- Department of Chemical EngineeringUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - Joan-Emma Shea
- Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
- Department of PhysicsUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
| | - Songi Han
- Department of Chemistry and BiochemistryUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
- Department of Chemical EngineeringUniversity of California Santa BarbaraSanta BarbaraUnited States
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