Toxic amyloid-? oligomers induced self-replication in astrocytes triggering neuronal injury.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Soluble amyloid-? oligomer (A?O) induced deleterious cascades have recently been considered to be the initiating pathologic agents of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, little is known about the neurotoxicity and production of different A?Os. Understanding the production and spread of toxic A?Os within the brain is important to improving understanding of AD pathogenesis and treatment. METHODS:Here, PS1V97L transgenic mice, a useful tool for studying the role of A?Os in AD, were used to identify the specific A?O assembly that contributes to neuronal injury and cognitive deficits. Then, we investigated the production and spread of toxic A? assemblies in astrocyte and neuron cultures, and further tested the results following intracerebroventricular injection of A?Os in animal model. FINDINGS:The results showed that cognitive deficits were mainly caused by the accumulation of nonameric and dodecameric A? assemblies in the brains. In addition, we found that the toxic A?Os were duplicated in a time-dependent manner when BACE1 and apolipoprotein E were overexpressed, which were responsible for producing redundant A? and forming nonameric and dodecameric assemblies in astrocytes, but not in neurons. INTERPRETATION:Our results suggest that astrocytes may play a central role in the progression of AD by duplicating and spreading toxic A?Os, thus triggering neuronal injury. FUND: This study was supported by the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China; the National Key Scientific Instrument and Equipment Development Project; Beijing Scholars Program, and Beijing Brain Initiative from Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission.
SUBMITTER: Wang W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6491655 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
ACCESS DATA