G protein-biased GPR3 signaling ameliorates amyloid pathology in a preclinical Alzheimer's disease mouse model.

Biased G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) ligands, which preferentially activate G protein or ß-arrestin signaling pathways, are leading to the development of drugs with superior efficacy and reduced side effects in heart disease, pain management, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Although GPCRs are implicated in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), biased GPCR signaling is a largely unexplored area of investigation in AD. Our previous work demonstrated that GPR3-mediated ß-arrestin signaling modulates amyloid-ß (Aß) generation in vitro and that Gpr3 deficiency ameliorates Aß pathology in vivo. However, Gpr3-deficient mice display several adverse phenotypes, including elevated anxiety-like behavior, reduced fertility, and memory impairment, which are potentially associated with impaired G protein signaling. Here, we generated a G protein-biased GPR3 mouse model to investigate the physiological and pathophysiological consequences of selective elimination of GPR3-mediated ß-arrestin signaling in vivo. In contrast to Gpr3-deficient mice, G protein-biased GPR3 mice do not display elevated anxiety levels, reduced fertility, or cognitive impairment. We further determined that G protein-biased signaling reduces soluble Aß levels and leads to a decrease in the area and compaction of amyloid plaques in the preclinical AppNL-G-F AD mouse model. The changes in amyloid pathology are accompanied by robust microglial and astrocytic hypertrophy, which suggest a protective glial response that may limit amyloid plaque development in G protein-biased GPR3 AD mice. Collectively, these studies indicate that GPR3-mediated G protein and ß-arrestin signaling produce discrete and separable effects and provide proof of concept for the development of safer GPCR-targeting therapeutics with more directed pharmacological action for AD.

Disrupting pathologic phase transitions in neurodegeneration.

Solid-like protein deposits found in aged and diseased human brains have revealed a relationship between insoluble protein accumulations and the resulting deficits in neurologic function. Clinically diverse neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, exhibit unique and disease-specific biochemical protein signatures and abnormal protein depositions that often correlate with disease pathogenesis. Recent evidence indicates that many pathologic proteins assemble into liquid-like protein phases through the highly coordinated process of liquid-liquid phase separation. Over the last decade, biomolecular phase transitions have emerged as a fundamental mechanism of cellular organization. Liquid-like condensates organize functionally related biomolecules within the cell, and many neuropathology-associated proteins reside within these dynamic structures. Thus, examining biomolecular phase transitions enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms mediating toxicity across diverse neurodegenerative diseases. This Review explores the known mechanisms contributing to aberrant protein phase transitions in neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on tau and TDP-43 proteinopathies and outlining potential therapeutic strategies to regulate these pathologic events.

RNA Binding Antagonizes Neurotoxic Phase Transitions of TDP-43.

TDP-43 proteinopathy is a pathological hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia where cytoplasmic TDP-43 inclusions are observed within degenerating regions of patient postmortem tissue. The mechanism by which TDP-43 aggregates has remained elusive due to technological limitations, which prevent the analysis of specific TDP-43 interactions in live cells. We present an optogenetic approach to reliably induce TDP-43 proteinopathy under spatiotemporal control. We show that the formation of pathologically relevant inclusions is driven by aberrant interactions between low-complexity domains of TDP-43 that are antagonized by RNA binding. Although stress granules are hypothesized to be a conduit for seeding TDP-43 proteinopathy, we demonstrate pathological inclusions outside these RNA-rich structures. Furthermore, we show that aberrant phase transitions of cytoplasmic TDP-43 are neurotoxic and that treatment with oligonucleotides composed of TDP-43 target sequences prevent inclusions and rescue neurotoxicity. Collectively, these studies provide insight into the mechanisms that underlie TDP-43 proteinopathy and present a potential avenue for therapeutic intervention.

Candidate PET Radioligand Development for Neurofibrillary Tangles: Two Distinct Radioligand Binding Sites Identified in Postmortem Alzheimer's Disease Brain.

[(18)F]THK-523 and [(18)F]807 are promising radioligands for imaging neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) with positron emission tomography (PET) in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and traumatic brain injury. Although [(18)F]THK-523 and [(18)F]T807 are considered high-affinity selective radioligands for NFTs, uncertainty has existed as to whether PET radioligands for imaging NFTs bind to the same molecular site because in vitro assays for ligands binding to NFTs have been lacking. We labeled THK-523 and T807 with tritium to serve as reference radioligands for in vitro binding assays with AD brain homogenates for newly synthesized ligands. With these radioligands, we identified two distinct binding sites for small molecules, one site with high affinity for THK-523 and the other with high affinity for T807. Moreover, binding assays with [(3)H]PIB confirmed that the two newly identified binding sites are also distinct from the thioflavin-T binding site where all current clinically useful PET radioligands for imaging ß-amyloid plaque bind with high affinity. The two newly identified binding sites are considered to reside on NFTs rather than on ß-amyloid plaques. Furthermore, we applied all three binding assays to a set of newly prepared compounds, based on chain modifications to THK-523. Some compounds with high affinity and selectivity for the THK-523 binding site emerged from this set, including one with amenability to labeling with fluorine-18, namely, ligand 10b.