The amyloid precursor protein regulates synaptic transmission at medial perforant path synapses
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ABSTRACT: The perforant path provides the main cortical excitatory input to the hippocampus. Due to its important role in information processing and coding, entorhinal projections to the dentate gyrus have been studied in considerable detail. Nevertheless, a characterization of synaptic transmission between individual connected pairs of entorhinal stellate cells and dentate granule cells is still pending. Here, we have used organotypic entorhino-hippocampal tissue cultures, in which the entorhino-dentate (EC-GC) projection is present and EC-GC pairs can be studied using whole-cell patch clamp recordings. Using cultures of wildtype mice, the properties of EC-GC synapses formed by afferents from the lateral and medial entorhinal cortex were compared and differences in short-term plasticity were revealed. Since the perforant path is severely affected in Alzheimer´s disease, we used cultures of APP-deficient mice to address the role of the amyloid-precursor protein (APP) at this synapse. APP-deficiency caused alterations in excitatory neurotransmission at medial perforant path synapses that were accompanied by transcriptomic and ultrastructural changes. Moreover, the deletion of pre- but not postsynaptic APP through the local injection of Cre-expressing AAVs in conditional APPflox/flox tissue cultures increased the efficacy of neurotransmission at perforant path synapses. Together, these data suggest a physiological role for presynaptic APP at medial perforant path synapses, which may be adversely affected under conditions of altered APP processing.
Project description:Gene expression was measured from the dentate gyrus and entorhinal cortex harvested from human postmortem samples. We harvested the dentate gyrus DG from healthy human brains ranging from 33 to 88 years of age. Additionally, from each brain we harvested the entorhinal cortex (EC) as a within-brain control. Using Affymetrix microarray chips we generated gene-expression profiles of each individual tissue samples. DG expression levels were first normalized against the EC, and the normalized DG transcripts were then correlated against age.
Project description:Neurological diseases can lead to the denervation of brain regions caused by demyelination, traumatic injury or cell death. Nevertheless, the molecular and structural mechanisms underlying lesion-induced reorganization of denervated brain regions are a matter of ongoing investigation. In order to address this issue, we performed an entorhinal cortex lesion (ECL) in mouse organotypic entorhino-hippocampal tissue cultures of both sexes and studied denervation-induced plasticity of mossy fiber synapses, which connect dentate granule cells (dGCs) with CA3 pyramidal cells (CA3-PCs) and play important roles in spatial learning. Partial denervation caused a strengthening of excitatory neurotransmission in dGCs, in CA3-PCs, and their direct synaptic connections as revealed by paired recordings (GC-to-CA3). These functional changes were accompanied by ultrastructural reorganization of mossy fiber synapses, which regularly contain the plasticity-related protein synaptopodin and the spine apparatus organelle. We demonstrate that the spine apparatus organelle and its integral protein synaptopodin are associated with ribosomes in close proximity to synaptic sites and unravel a synaptopodin-related transcriptome. Notably, synaptopodin-deficient tissue preparations that lack the spine apparatus organelle, failed to express lesion-induced synaptic adjustments. Hence, synaptopodin and the spine apparatus organelle play a crucial role in regulating lesion-induced synaptic plasticity at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses.
Project description:Diversification of cell adhesion molecules by alternative splicing is proposed to underlie molecular codes for neuronal wiring. Transcriptomic approaches mapped detailed cell type-specific mRNA splicing programs. However, it has been hard to probe synapse-specific localization and function of the resulting protein splice isoforms, or “proteoforms”, in vivo. We here apply a proteoform-centric workflow in mice to test synapse-specific functions of splice isoforms of the synaptic adhesion molecule Neurexin-3 (NRXN3). We uncover a major proteoform, NRXN3 AS5, that is highly expressed in GABAergic interneurons and dendrite-targeting GABAergic terminals. NRXN3 AS5 abundance significantly diverges from the distribution of the Nrxn3 mRNA and is gated by translation-repressive elements. Nrxn3 AS5 isoform deletion results in selective impairment of dendrite-targeting interneuron synapses in the dentate gyrus without affecting somatic inhibition or glutamatergic perforant-path synapses. This work establishes cell- and synapse-specific functions of a specific neurexin proteoform and highlights the importance of alternative splicing regulation for synapse specification.
Project description:Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) pathology and amyloid-beta plaque deposition progress slowly in the cerebellum compared to other regions, while the entorhinal cortex (EC) is one of the most vulnerable regions. Using a knock-in mouse model (App KI) of preclinical AD, we show that within the cerebellum, the deep cerebellar nuclei (DCN) show particularly low Aβ plaque accumulation. To identify factors that might underlie differences in the progression of AD-associated neuropathology across regions, we profiled gene expression in single nuclei (snRNAseq) across all celltypes in the DCN and EC of wild-type and App KI male mice at age 7 months.
Project description:Sanfilippo syndrome type B (MPS III B) is an autosomal recessive, neurodegenerative disease of children, characterized by profound mental retardation and dementia. The primary cause is mutation in the NAGLU gene, resulting in deficiency of N-acetylglucosaminidase and lysosomal accumulation of heparan sulfate. In the mouse model of MPS III B, neurons and microglia display the characteristic vacuolation of lysosomal storage of undegraded substrate, but neurons in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) display accumulation of several additional substances. We used whole genome microarray analysis to examine differential gene expression in MEC neurons isolated by laser capture microdissection from Naglu -/- and Naglu +/- mice. Neurons from the lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) were used as tissue controls. The highest increase in gene expression (6- to 7-fold between mutant and control) in MEC and LEC neurons was that of Lyzs, which encodes lysozyme, but accumulation of lysozyme protein was seen in MEC neurons only. Because of a report that lysozyme induced the formation of hyperphosphorylated tau (P-tau) in cultured neurons, we searched for P-tau by immunohistochemistry. P-tau was found in MEC of Naglu -/- mice, in the same neurons as lysozyme. In older mutant mice, it was also seen in the dentate gyrus, an area important for memory. Electron microscopy of dentate gyrus neurons showed cytoplasmic inclusions of paired helical filaments - P-tau aggregates characteristic of tauopathies, a group of age-related dementias that includes Alzheimer disease. Our findings indicate that the Sanfilippo syndrome type B should also be considered a tauopathy. Two-condition experiment, Naglu-/- (affected) vs. Naglu+/- (unaffected control) of neurons from two adjacent brain regions: medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC). Biological replicates: 3 MEC Naglu-/-, 3 MEC Naglu+/-, 3 LEC Naglu-/- and 3 LEC Naglu+/-. Comparisons were made between 3 pairs of mutant and control female littermates for MEC and LEC neurons with dye switch duplicates, for a total of 12 microarrays.
Project description:Structural, functional, and molecular reorganization of denervated neural networks is often observed in neurological conditions. The loss of input is accompanied by homeostatic synaptic adaptations, which can affect the reorganization of denervated networks. However, a major challenge of denervation-induced homeostatic plasticity operating in complex neural networks is the specialization of neuronal inputs. Therefore, it remains unclear whether neurons respond similarly to the loss of distinct inputs. Here, we used in vitro entorhinal cortex lesion (ECL) and Schaffer collateral lesion (SCL) in mouse organotypic entorhino-hippocampal tissue cultures of either sex, and studied denervation-induced plasticity of CA1 pyramidal neurons. We observed accumulation of microglia, degeneration of presynaptic buttons and a reduction in dendritic spine numbers in the denervated layers three days after SCL and ECL, respectively. Transcriptome analysis of the CA1 region showed complex changes in differential gene expression following SCL and ECL compared to non-lesioned controls. An enrichment of differentially expressed synapse-related genes was observed specifically after ECL. Consistent with this finding, denervation-induced homeostatic plasticity of excitatory synapses was observed three days after ECL but not after SCL. Chemogenetic silencing of the EC but not CA3 confirmed the pathway-specific induction of homeostatic synaptic plasticity in CA1. Moreover, increased RNA oxidation was observed after SCL and ECL. These results reveal important commonalities and differences of distinct pathway lesions, and demonstrate a pathway-specific induction of denervation-induced homeostatic synaptic plasticity.
Project description:Brain slice cultures offer advantages over other in vitro methods, as they mimic numerous in vivo aspects. For most purposes, slices of the developing brain, termed organotypic slice cultures , preserve a high degree of cellular differentiation and tissue organization. The entorhino-hippocampal connection (EHP) is the main entrance of information to the hippocampus proper and the dentate gyrus. Also it has some specific features that make them particularly interesting in studies of axonal regeneration: (i) the culture method obviates the need for extensive animal surgery and requires less time than other in vivo approaches; (ii) the EHP is reproduced easily in vitro in cultures with a degree of laminar specificity similar to that found in vivo; (iii) the EHP is myelinated both in vitro and in vivo; and (iv) most of the cellular and molecular barriers to axon regeneration are present after the axotomy of the EHP in vitro. Altogether this model is useful to evaluate axon regeneration and putative estrategies to promote axonal growth. Keywords: organotypic slice cultures; axonal lession; gene expression To evaluate the genes whose transcription was regulated after 1, 3 and 7 days after EHP (Entorhino-Hippocampal Pathway) axotomy, RNA samples were analyzed with Agilent whole genome rat long oligonucleotide (44 K base) probe based microarrays.
Project description:We examined transgenic (TG) mice expressing human APP695 bearing the double Swedish (671KM>NL) and Indiana (717V>F) amyloid precursor protein (APP) mutations. Lentiviral vectors constitutively expressing BDNF-GFP under control of the CMV/Ã-actin hybrid promoter or GFP alone were injected into the entorhinal cortices of TG mice bilaterally at age 6 months, a time point by which neuropathological degeneration and cell loss are established. Age-matched wild-type littermates underwent sham surgery or injection of lentivirus expressing GFP into the entorhinal cortices bilaterally. Experiment Overall Design: 26 Samples total: 4 biological replicates of APP transgenic mice BDNF treated, 4 biological replicates of APP transgenic mice GFP treated, 3 biological replicates of non-trangenic mice sham lesion and 2 biological replicates of non-transgenic mice GFP treated for both tissues: Entorhinal cortex and hippocampus.
Project description:We report the first full transcriptome analysis of layer II and deep layers of the medial and lateral entorhinal cortex during postnatal development. Our analysis showed that postnatal timepoint was the most important element in entorhinal cortex transcriptional dynamics, followed by laminar differences. There were fewer differentially expressed genes between the medial and lateral parts of the entorhinal cortex, and most of these were found in layer II.