Dataset Information

Caspase-3-Dependent Proteolytic Cleavage of Tau Causes Neurofibrillary Tangles and Results in Cognitive Impairment During Normal Aging.

ABSTRACT: Mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are important for understanding how pathological signaling cascades change neural circuitry and with time interrupt cognitive function. Here, we introduce a non-genetic preclinical model for aging and show that it exhibits cleaved tau protein, active caspases and neurofibrillary tangles, hallmarks of AD, causing behavioral deficits measuring cognitive impairment. To our knowledge this is the first report of a non-transgenic, non-interventional mouse model displaying structural, functional and molecular aging deficits associated with AD and other tauopathies in humans with potentially high impact on both new basic research into pathogenic mechanisms and new translational research efforts. Tau aggregation is a hallmark of tauopathies, including AD. Recent studies have indicated that cleavage of tau plays an important role in both tau aggregation and disease. In this study we use wild type mice as a model for normal aging and resulting age-related cognitive impairment. We provide evidence that aged mice have increased levels of activated caspases, which significantly correlates with increased levels of truncated tau and formation of neurofibrillary tangles. In addition, cognitive decline was significantly correlated with increased levels of caspase activity and tau truncated by caspase-3. Experimentally induced inhibition of caspases prevented this proteolytic cleavage of tau and the associated formation of neurofibrillary tangles. Our study shows the strength of using a non-transgenic model to study structure, function and molecular mechanisms in aging and age related diseases of the brain.

SUBMITTER: Means JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4965284 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Caspase-3-Dependent Proteolytic Cleavage of Tau Causes Neurofibrillary Tangles and Results in Cognitive Impairment During Normal Aging.

Means John C JC Gerdes Bryan C BC Kaja Simon S Sumien Nathalie N Payne Andrew J AJ Stark Danny A DA Borden Priscilla K PK Price Jeffrey L JL Koulen Peter P

Neurochemical research 20160525 9

Mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) are important for understanding how pathological signaling cascades change neural circuitry and with time interrupt cognitive function. Here, we introduce a non-genetic preclinical model for aging and show that it exhibits cleaved tau protein, active caspases and neurofibrillary tangles, hallmarks of AD, causing behavioral deficits measuring cognitive impairment. To our knowledge this is the first report of a non-transge ...[more]

PMID: 27220334

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Project description:Tauopathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy, which are associated with the pathological aggregation of tau protein into neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Studies have characterized tau as a "prion-like" protein given its ability to form distinct, stable amyloid conformations capable of transcellular and multigenerational propagation in clonal fashion. It has been proposed that progression of tauopathy could be due to the prion-like propagation of tau, suggesting the possibility that end-stage pathologies, like NFT formation, may require an instigating event such as tau seeding. To investigate this, we applied a novel human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) system we have developed to serve as a human neuronal model. We introduced the tau repeat domain (tau-RD) with P301L and V337M (tau-RD-LM) mutations into hiPSC-derived neurons and observed expression of tau-RD at levels similar to total tau in postmortem AD brains. Tau aggregation occurred without the addition of recombinant tau fibrils. The conditioned media from tau-RD cultures contained tau-RD seeds, which were capable of inducing aggregate formation in homotypic mode in non-transduced recipient neuronal cultures. The resultant NFTs were thioflavin-positive, silver stain-positive, and assumed fibrillary appearance on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with immunogold, which revealed paired helical filament 1 (PHF1)-positive NFTs, representing possible recruitment of endogenous tau in the aggregates. Functionally, expression of tau-RD caused neurotoxicity that manifested as axon retraction, synaptic density reduction, and enlargement of lysosomes. The results of our hiPSC study were reinforced by the observation that Tau-RD-LM is excreted in exosomes, which mediated the transfer of human tau to wild-type mouse neurons in vivo. Our hiPSC human neuronal system provides a model for further studies of tau aggregation and pathology as well as a means to study transcellular propagation and related neurodegenerative mechanisms.

Project description:BackgroundMultimerization is a key process in prion-like disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), since it is a requirement for self-templating tau and beta-amyloid amyloidogenesis. AT8-immunohistochemistry for hyperphosphorylated tau is currently used for the diagnosis and staging of tau pathology. Given that tau-tau interactions can occur in the absence of hyperphosphorylation or other post-translational modifications (PTMs), the direct visualization of tau multimerization could uncover early pathological tau multimers.MethodsHere, we used bimolecular fluorescent complementation, rapamycin-dependent FKBP/FRB-tau interaction and transmission electron microscopy to prove the in vitro specificity of tau-proximity ligation assay (tau-PLA). We then analyzed MAPT KO and P301S transgenic mice, and human hippocampus and temporal isocortex of all Braak stages with tau-PLA and compared it with immunohistochemistry for the diagnostic antibody AT8, the early phosphorylation-dependent AT180, and the conformational-dependent antibody MC1. Finally, we performed proteinase-K treatment to infer the content of amyloidogenic beta-sheet fold.ResultsOur novel tau-proximity ligation assay (tau-PLA) directly visualized tau-tau interactions in situ, and exclusively recognized tau multimers but not monomers. It elicited no signal in MAPT KO mouse brains, but extensively labelled P301S transgenic mice and AD brain. Two groups of structures were detected, a previously unreported widespread small-sized diffuse pathology and large, neurofibrillary-like lesions. Tau-PLA-labelled diffuse pathology appeared from the earliest Braak stages, mostly unaccompanied by tangle-like tau-immunohistochemistry, being significantly more sensitive than any small-sized dot-/thread-like pathology labelled by AT180-, AT8- and MC1-immunohistochemistry in most regions quantified at stages 0-II. Tau-PLA-labelled diffuse pathology was extremely sensitive to Proteinase-K, in contrast to large lesions.ConclusionsTau-PLA is the first method to directly visualize tau multimers both in vitro and in situ with high specificity. We find that tau multimerization appears extensively from the earliest presymptomatic Braak stages as a previously unreported type of diffuse pathology. Importantly, in our study multimerization is the earliest detectable molecular event of AD tau pathology. Our findings open a new window to the study of early tau pathology, with potential implications in early diagnosis and the design of therapeutic strategies.

Dataset Information

Caspase-3-Dependent Proteolytic Cleavage of Tau Causes Neurofibrillary Tangles and Results in Cognitive Impairment During Normal Aging.

Publications

Caspase-3-Dependent Proteolytic Cleavage of Tau Causes Neurofibrillary Tangles and Results in Cognitive Impairment During Normal Aging.

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