Project description:The β-amyloid precursor protein APP and the related APLPs, undergo complex proteolytic processing giving rise to several fragments. Whereas it is well established that Aβ accumulation is a central trigger for Alzheimer disease (AD), the physiological role of APP family members and their diverse proteolytic products is still largely unknown. The secreted APPsα ectodomain has been shown to be involved in neuroprotection and synaptic plasticity. The γ-secretase generated APP intracellular domain AICD, functions as a transciptional regulator in heterologous reporter assays, although its role for endogenous gene regulation has remained controversial. To gain further insight into the molecular changes associated with knockout phenotypes and to elucidate the physiological functions of APP family members including their proposed role as transcriptional regulators we performed a DNA microarray transcriptome profiling of the frontal cortex of adult wild type, APP-/-, APLP2-/- and APPsα knockin (KI) mice, APPα/α, expressing solely the secreted APPsα ectodomain. Biological pathways affected by the lack of APP family members included regulation of neurogenesis, regulation of transcription and regulation of neuron projection development. Comparative analysis of transcriptome changes and qPCR validation identified co-regulated gene sets. Interestingly, these included heat shock proteins and plasticity related genes that were down-regulated in knock-out cortices. In contrast, we failed to detect significant differences in expression of previously proposed AICD target genes including Bace1, Kai1, Gsk3b, p53, Tip60 and Vglut2. Only Egfr was slightly up-regulated in APLP2-/- mice. Comparison of APP-/- and APPα/α with wild-type mice revealed a high proportion of co-regulated genes indicating an important role of the C-terminus for cellular signaling. Finally, comparison of APLP2-/- on different genetic backgrounds revealed that background related transcriptome changes may dominate over changes due to the knockout of a single gene. Shared transcriptome profiles corroborated closely related physiological functions of APP family members in the adult central nervous system. As expression of proposed AICD target genes was not altered in adult cortex, this may indicate that these genes are not affected by lack of APP under resting conditions or only in a small subset of cells. Prefrontal cortices of adult male mice (24 - 28 weeks) of the following genotypes were analyzed: WT (n=3), APP-/- (n=3), APPα/α (n=3), APLP2-/- (n=3), APLP2(R1)-/- (n=3). WT, APP-/-, APPα/α, APLP2-/- had been backcrossed for six generations to C57BL/6 mice. APLP2(R1)-/- harbors the identical knockout allele as APLP2-/- but was back-crossed only once.
Project description:Amyloid precursor protein (APP) is associated with both familial and sporadic forms of Alzheimer’s disease. APP has two homologs, amyloid precursor-like protein 1 and 2 (APLP1 and APLP2), and they have functional redundancy. APP intracellular c-terminal domain (AICD), produced by sequential α- or β- and γ-secretase cleavages, is thought to control gene expression, similarly as the ICD of Notch. To investigate the role of APP family in transcriptional regulation, we examined gene expression changes in the cerebral cortex of APP/APLP1/APLP2 conditional triple knockout (cTKO) mice, in which APP family members are selectively inactivated in excitatory neurons of the postnatal forebrain. Of the 12 previously reported AICD target genes, only Nep and Npas4 mRNA levels were significantly reduced in the cerebral cortex of cTKO mice, compared to littermate controls. We further examined global transcriptional changes by RNA-seq and identified 189 and 274 differentially expressed genes in the neocortex and hippocampus, respectively, of cTKO mice relative to controls. Gene Ontology analysis indicated that these genes are involved in a variety of cellular functions, including extracellular organization, learning and memory, and ion channels. Thus, inactivation of APP family alters transcriptional profiles of the cerebral cortex and affects wide-ranging molecular pathways.
Project description:The β-amyloid precursor protein APP and the related APLPs, undergo complex proteolytic processing giving rise to several fragments. Whereas it is well established that Aβ accumulation is a central trigger for Alzheimer disease (AD), the physiological role of APP family members and their diverse proteolytic products is still largely unknown. The secreted APPsα ectodomain has been shown to be involved in neuroprotection and synaptic plasticity. The γ-secretase generated APP intracellular domain AICD, functions as a transciptional regulator in heterologous reporter assays, although its role for endogenous gene regulation has remained controversial. To gain further insight into the molecular changes associated with knockout phenotypes and to elucidate the physiological functions of APP family members including their proposed role as transcriptional regulators we performed a DNA microarray transcriptome profiling of the frontal cortex of adult wild type, APP-/-, APLP2-/- and APPsα knockin (KI) mice, APPα/α, expressing solely the secreted APPsα ectodomain. Biological pathways affected by the lack of APP family members included regulation of neurogenesis, regulation of transcription and regulation of neuron projection development. Comparative analysis of transcriptome changes and qPCR validation identified co-regulated gene sets. Interestingly, these included heat shock proteins and plasticity related genes that were down-regulated in knock-out cortices. In contrast, we failed to detect significant differences in expression of previously proposed AICD target genes including Bace1, Kai1, Gsk3b, p53, Tip60 and Vglut2. Only Egfr was slightly up-regulated in APLP2-/- mice. Comparison of APP-/- and APPα/α with wild-type mice revealed a high proportion of co-regulated genes indicating an important role of the C-terminus for cellular signaling. Finally, comparison of APLP2-/- on different genetic backgrounds revealed that background related transcriptome changes may dominate over changes due to the knockout of a single gene. Shared transcriptome profiles corroborated closely related physiological functions of APP family members in the adult central nervous system. As expression of proposed AICD target genes was not altered in adult cortex, this may indicate that these genes are not affected by lack of APP under resting conditions or only in a small subset of cells.
Project description:Despite its key role in Alzheimer pathogenesis, the physiological function(s) of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and of its proteolytic fragments are still poorly understood. The secreted APPs? ectodomain has been shown to be involved in neuroprotection and synaptic plasticity. The ?-secretase generated APP intracellular domain, AICD, functions as a transcriptional regulator in heterologous reporter assays although its role for endogenous gene regulation has remained controversial. Previously, we have generated APPs? knockin (KI) mice expressing solely the secreted ectodomain APPs?. Here, we generated double mutants (APPs?-DM) by crossing APPs?-KI mice onto an APLP2-deficient background and show that APPs? rescues the postnatal lethality of the majority of APP/APLP2 double knockout mice. Despite normal CNS morphology and unaltered basal synaptic transmission, young APPs?-DM mice already showed pronounced hippocampal dysfunction, impaired spatial learning and a deficit in LTP. To gain further mechanistic insight into which domains/proteolytic fragments are crucial for hippocampal APP/APLP2 mediated functions, we performed a DNA microarray transcriptome profiling of prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of adult APLP2-KO (APLP2-/-) and APPs?-DM mice (APP?/?APLP2-/- mice).Interestingly, this analysis failed to reveal major genotype-related transcriptional differences. Expression differences between cortex and hippocampus were, however, readily detectable. Prefrontal cortices and hippocampi of adult mice (38 - 40 weeks) of the following genotypes were analyzed: APLP2-KO (APLP2-/-) (n=3) and APPs?-DM (APP?/?APLP2-/-) (n=3).
Project description:HCHWA-D is an early onset hereditary form of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA) caused by a point mutation resulting in an amino acid change (NP_000475.1:p.Glu693Gln) in the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). Post-mortem brain tissue (9 patients and 9 age-related controls; frontal and occipital cortex) was used for next generation sequencing of RNA (RNA-Seq with ribosomal RNA depletion).
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:The amyloid precursor protein (APP), an important player in the Alzheimer’s disease, regulates neurites formation and synaptic function by mechanisms still not fully understood. Its ability to control gene expression via its intracellular domain (AICD) was proposed to mediate several of these physiological functions. Here, we tested whether putative AICD target genes could be transcriptionally modified by the absence of APP in embryonic cortex (E18) and in primary cortical neurons during maturation after 3 or 7 days in vitro. Moreover, we aimed to identified novel APP dependent target genes that could be related to particular biological functions in the context of neuronal physiology.
Project description:We found that β-amyloid accumulation is modulated in HAOEC cells by overexpression or blocking of lncRNA BACE1-AS, which in turn regulates both BACE1 mRNA and protein expression. BACE1 is key-enzyme in the synthesis of β-amyloid from Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP). The transcriptomic changes mediated by 400nM β-amyloid was investigated in HAOEC cells.
Project description:Despite its key role in Alzheimer pathogenesis, the physiological function(s) of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and of its proteolytic fragments are still poorly understood. The secreted APPsα ectodomain has been shown to be involved in neuroprotection and synaptic plasticity. The γ-secretase generated APP intracellular domain, AICD, functions as a transcriptional regulator in heterologous reporter assays although its role for endogenous gene regulation has remained controversial. Previously, we have generated APPsα knockin (KI) mice expressing solely the secreted ectodomain APPsα. Here, we generated double mutants (APPsα-DM) by crossing APPsα-KI mice onto an APLP2-deficient background and show that APPsα rescues the postnatal lethality of the majority of APP/APLP2 double knockout mice. Despite normal CNS morphology and unaltered basal synaptic transmission, young APPsα-DM mice already showed pronounced hippocampal dysfunction, impaired spatial learning and a deficit in LTP. To gain further mechanistic insight into which domains/proteolytic fragments are crucial for hippocampal APP/APLP2 mediated functions, we performed a DNA microarray transcriptome profiling of prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of adult APLP2-KO (APLP2-/-) and APPsα-DM mice (APPα/αAPLP2-/- mice).Interestingly, this analysis failed to reveal major genotype-related transcriptional differences. Expression differences between cortex and hippocampus were, however, readily detectable.
Project description:Transcriptome profiling of embryonic cortex E18 and primary cortical neuron cultures deficient for the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP)