Dataset Information

Human P301L-mutant tau expression in mouse entorhinal-hippocampal network causes tau aggregation and presynaptic pathology but no cognitive deficits.

ABSTRACT: Accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau in the entorhinal cortex (EC) is one of the earliest pathological hallmarks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). It can occur before significant A? deposition and appears to "spread" into anatomically connected brain regions. To determine whether this early-stage pathology is sufficient to cause disease progression and cognitive decline in experimental models, we overexpressed mutant human tau (hTauP301L) predominantly in layer II/III neurons of the mouse EC. Cognitive functions remained normal in mice at 4, 8, 12 and 16 months of age, despite early and extensive tau accumulation in the EC. Perforant path (PP) axon terminals within the dentate gyrus (DG) contained abnormal conformations of tau even in young EC-hTau mice, and phosphorylated tau increased with age in both the EC and PP. In old mice, ultrastructural alterations in presynaptic terminals were observed at PP-to-granule cell synapses. Phosphorylated tau was more abundant in presynaptic than postsynaptic elements. Human and pathological tau was also detected within hippocampal neurons of this mouse model. Thus, hTauP301L accumulation predominantly in the EC and related presynaptic pathology in hippocampal circuits was not sufficient to cause robust cognitive deficits within the age range analyzed here.

SUBMITTER: Harris JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3454317 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Human P301L-mutant tau expression in mouse entorhinal-hippocampal network causes tau aggregation and presynaptic pathology but no cognitive deficits.

Harris Julie A JA Koyama Akihiko A Maeda Sumihiro S Ho Kaitlyn K Devidze Nino N Dubal Dena B DB Yu Gui-Qiu GQ Masliah Eliezer E Mucke Lennart L

PloS one 20120924 9

Accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau in the entorhinal cortex (EC) is one of the earliest pathological hallmarks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). It can occur before significant Aβ deposition and appears to "spread" into anatomically connected brain regions. To determine whether this early-stage pathology is sufficient to cause disease progression and cognitive decline in experimental models, we overexpressed mutant human tau (hTauP301L) predominantly in layer II/III neurons of the ...[more]

PMID: 23029293

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Prior studies in C. elegans demonstrated that the expression of aggregation-prone polyglutamine proteins in muscle wall cells compromised the folding of co-expressed temperature-sensitive proteins, prompting interest in whether the accumulation of a misfolded protein in pathologic features of human neurodegenerative disease burdens cellular proteostatic machinery in a manner that impairs the folding of other cellular proteins. METHODS:Mice expressing high levels of mutant forms of tau and ?-synuclein (?Syn), which develop inclusion pathologies of the mutant protein in brain and spinal cord, were crossed to mice expressing low levels of mutant superoxide dismutase 1 fused to yellow fluorescent protein (G85R-SOD1:YFP) for aging and neuropathological evaluation. RESULTS:Mice expressing low levels of G85R-SOD1:YFP, alone, lived normal lifespans and were free of evidence of inclusion pathology, setting the stage to use this protein as a reporter of proteostatic function. We observed robust induction of G85R-SOD1:YFP inclusion pathology in the neuropil of spinal cord and brainstem of bigenic mice that co-express high levels of mutant tau in the spinal axis and develop robust spinal tau pathology (JNPL3 mice). In contrast, in crosses of the G85R-SOD1:YFP mice with mice that model spinal ?-synucleinopathy (the M83 model of ?Syn pathology), we observed no G85R-SOD1:YFP inclusion formation. Similarly, in crosses of the G85R-SOD1:YFP mice to mice that model cortical tau pathology (rTg4510 mice), we did not observe induction of G85R-SOD1:YFP inclusions. CONCLUSION:Despite robust burdens of neurodegenerative pathology in M83 and rTg4510 mice, the introduction of the G85R-SOD1:YFP protein was induced to aggregate only in the context of spinal tau pathology present in the JNPL3 model. These findings suggest unexpected specificity, mediated by both the primary protein pathology and cellular context, in the induced "secondary aggregation" of a mutant form of SOD1 that could be viewed as a reporter of proteostatic function.

Dataset Information

Human P301L-mutant tau expression in mouse entorhinal-hippocampal network causes tau aggregation and presynaptic pathology but no cognitive deficits.

Publications

Human P301L-mutant tau expression in mouse entorhinal-hippocampal network causes tau aggregation and presynaptic pathology but no cognitive deficits.

Similar Datasets

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