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APP processing in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons is resistant to NSAID-based ?-secretase modulation.

ABSTRACT: Increasing evidence suggests that elevated A?42 fractions in the brain cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although ?-secretase modulators (GSMs), including a set of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), were found to lower A?42 in various model systems, NSAID-based GSMs proved to be surprisingly inefficient in human clinical trials. Reasoning that the nonhuman and nonneuronal cells typically used in pharmaceutical compound validation might not adequately reflect the drug responses of human neurons, we used human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons from AD patients and unaffected donors to explore the efficacy of NSAID-based ?-secretase modulation. We found that pharmaceutically relevant concentrations of these GSMs that are clearly efficacious in conventional nonneuronal cell models fail to elicit any effect on A?42/Aß40 ratios in human neurons. Our work reveals resistance of human neurons to NSAID-based ?-secretase modulation, highlighting the need to validate compound efficacy directly in the human cell type affected by the respective disease.

SUBMITTER: Mertens J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3871388 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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APP processing in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons is resistant to NSAID-based γ-secretase modulation.

Mertens Jerome J Stüber Kathrin K Wunderlich Patrick P Ladewig Julia J Kesavan Jaideep C JC Vandenberghe Rik R Vandenbulcke Mathieu M van Damme Philip P Walter Jochen J Brüstle Oliver O Koch Philipp P

Stem cell reports 20131205 6

Increasing evidence suggests that elevated Aβ42 fractions in the brain cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although γ-secretase modulators (GSMs), including a set of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), were found to lower Aβ42 in various model systems, NSAID-based GSMs proved to be surprisingly inefficient in human clinical trials. Reasoning that the nonhuman and nonneuronal cells typically used in pharmaceutical compound validation might not adequately reflect the drug responses of human ...[more]

PMID: 24371804

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Project description:IMPORTANCE:Although considerable effort has been expended developing drug candidates for Alzheimer disease, none have yet succeeded owing to the lack of efficacy or to safety concerns. One potential shortcoming of current approaches to Alzheimer disease drug discovery and development is that they rely primarily on transformed cell lines and animal models that substantially overexpress wild-type or mutant proteins. It is possible that drug development failures thus far are caused in part by the limits of these approaches, which do not accurately reveal how drug candidates will behave in naive human neuronal cells. OBJECTIVE:To analyze purified neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells from patients carrying 3 different presenilin 1 (PS1) mutations and nondemented control individuals in the absence of any overexpression. We tested the efficacy of ?-secretase inhibitor and ?-secretase modulator (GSM) in neurons derived from both normal control and 3 PS1 mutations (A246E, H163R, and M146L). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:Adult human skin biopsies were obtained from volunteers at the Alzheimer Disease Research Center, University of California, San Diego. Cell cultures were treated with ?-secretase inhibitor or GSM. Comparisons of total ?-amyloid (A?) and A? peptides 38, 40, and 42 in the media were made between vehicle- vs drug-treated cultures. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:Soluble A? levels in the media were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS:As predicted, mutant PS1 neurons exhibited an elevated A?42:A?40 ratio (P < .05) at the basal state as compared with the nondemented control neurons. Treatment with a potent non-nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory druglike GSM revealed a new biomarker signature that differs from all previous cell types and animals tested. This new signature was the same in both the mutant and control neurons and consisted of a reduction in A?42, A?40, and A?38 and in the A?42:A?40 ratio, with no change in the total A? levels. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:This biomarker discrepancy is likely due to overexpression of amyloid precursor protein in the transformed cellular models. Our results suggest that biomarker signatures obtained with such models are misleading and that human neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells provide a unique signature that will more accurately reflect drug response in human patients and in cerebrospinal fluid biomarker changes observed during GSM treatment.

Project description:The amyloid ?-peptide (A?) of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is generated by proteolysis within the transmembrane domain (TMD) of a C-terminal fragment of the amyloid ? protein-precursor (APP CTF?) by the ?-secretase complex. This processing produces A? ranging from 38 to 49 residues in length. Evidence suggests that this spectrum of A? peptides is the result of successive ?-secretase cleavages, with endoproteolysis first occurring at the ? sites to generate A?48 or A?49, followed by C-terminal trimming mostly every three residues along two product lines to generate shorter, secreted forms of A?: the primary A?49-46-43-40 line and a minor A?48-45-42-38 line. The major secreted A? species are A?40 and A?42, and an increased proportion of the longer, aggregation-prone A?42 compared to A?40 is widely thought to be important in AD pathogenesis. We examined TMD substrate determinants of the specificity and efficiency of ? site endoproteolysis and carboxypeptidase trimming of CTF? by ?-secretase. We determined that the C-terminal negative charge of the intermediate A?49 does not play a role in its trimming by ?-secretase. Peptidomimetic probes suggest that ?-secretase has S1', S2', and S3' pockets, through which trimming by tripeptides may be determined. However, deletion of residues around the ? sites demonstrates that a depth of three residues within the TMD is not a determinant of the location of endoproteolytic ? cleavage of CTF?. We also show that instability of the CTF? TMD helix near the ? site significantly increases endoproteolysis, and that helical instability near the carboxypeptidase cleavage sites facilitates C-terminal trimming by ?-secretase. In addition, we found that CTF? dimers are not endoproteolyzed by ?-secretase. These results support a model in which initial interaction of the array of residues along the undimerized single helical TMD of substrates dictates the site of initial ? cleavage and that helix unwinding is essential for both endoproteolysis and carboxypeptidase trimming.

Project description:Alzheimer disease (AD) is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid plaques, which are predominantly composed of amyloid-β peptide. Two principal physiological pathways either prevent or promote amyloid-β generation from its precursor, β-amyloid precursor protein (APP), in a competitive manner. Although APP processing has been studied in great detail, unknown proteolytic events seem to hinder stoichiometric analyses of APP metabolism in vivo. Here we describe a new physiological APP processing pathway, which generates proteolytic fragments capable of inhibiting neuronal activity within the hippocampus. We identify higher molecular mass carboxy-terminal fragments (CTFs) of APP, termed CTF-η, in addition to the long-known CTF-α and CTF-β fragments generated by the α- and β-secretases ADAM10 (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10) and BACE1 (β-site APP cleaving enzyme 1), respectively. CTF-η generation is mediated in part by membrane-bound matrix metalloproteinases such as MT5-MMP, referred to as η-secretase activity. η-Secretase cleavage occurs primarily at amino acids 504-505 of APP695, releasing a truncated ectodomain. After shedding of this ectodomain, CTF-η is further processed by ADAM10 and BACE1 to release long and short Aη peptides (termed Aη-α and Aη-β). CTFs produced by η-secretase are enriched in dystrophic neurites in an AD mouse model and in human AD brains. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of BACE1 activity results in robust accumulation of CTF-η and Aη-α. In mice treated with a potent BACE1 inhibitor, hippocampal long-term potentiation was reduced. Notably, when recombinant or synthetic Aη-α was applied on hippocampal slices ex vivo, long-term potentiation was lowered. Furthermore, in vivo single-cell two-photon calcium imaging showed that hippocampal neuronal activity was attenuated by Aη-α. These findings not only demonstrate a major functionally relevant APP processing pathway, but may also indicate potential translational relevance for therapeutic strategies targeting APP processing.

Project description:BACKGROUND:γ-Secretase is a multiprotein protease that cleaves amyloid protein precursor (APP) and other type I transmembrane proteins. It has two catalytic subunits, presenilins 1 and 2 (PS1 and 2). In our previous report, we observed subtle differences in PS1- and PS2-mediated cleavages of select substrates and slightly different potencies of PS1 versus PS2 inhibition for select γ-secretase inhibitors (GSIs) on various substrates. In this study, we investigated whether γ-secretase modulators (GSMs) and inverse γ-secretase modulators (iGSMs) modulate γ-secretase processivity using multiple different substrates. We next used HEK 293T cell lines in which PSEN1 or PSEN2 was selectively knocked out to investigate processivity and response to GSMs and iGSMs. METHODS:For cell-free γ-secretase cleavage assay, recombinant substrates were incubated with CHAPSO-solubilized CHO or HEK 293T cell membrane with GSMs or iGSMs in suitable buffer. For cell-based assay, cDNA encoding substrates were transfected into HEK 293T cells. Cells were then treated with GSMs or iGSMs, and conditioned media were collected. Aβ and Aβ-like peptide production from cell-free and cell-based assay were measured by ELISA and mass spectrometry. RESULT:These studies demonstrated that GSMs are highly selective for effects on APP, whereas iGSMs have a more promiscuous effect on many substrates. Surprisingly, iGSMs actually appear to act as like GSIs on select substrates. The data with PSEN1 or PSEN2 knocked out HEK 293T reveal that PS1 has higher processivity and response to GSMs than PS2, but PS2 has higher response to iGSM. CONCLUSION:Collectively, these data indicate that GSMs are likely to have limited target-based toxicity. In addition, they show that iGSMs may act as substrate-selective GSIs providing a potential new route to identify leads for substrate-selective inhibitors of certain γ-secretase-mediated signaling events. With growing concerns that long-term β-secretase inhibitor is limited by target-based toxicities, such data supports continued development of GSMs as AD prophylactics.

Dataset Information

APP processing in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons is resistant to NSAID-based ?-secretase modulation.

Publications

APP processing in human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons is resistant to NSAID-based γ-secretase modulation.

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