Metal Toxicity Links to Alzheimer's Disease and Neuroinflammation.

As the median age of the population increases, the number of individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the associated socio-economic burden are predicted to worsen. While aging and inherent genetic predisposition play major roles in the onset of AD, lifestyle, physical fitness, medical condition, and social environment have emerged as relevant disease modifiers. These environmental risk factors can play a key role in accelerating or decelerating disease onset and progression. Among known environmental risk factors, chronic exposure to various metals has become more common among the public as the aggressive pace of anthropogenic activities releases excess amount of metals into the environment. As a result, we are exposed not only to essential metals, such as iron, copper, zinc and manganese, but also to toxic metals including lead, aluminum, and cadmium, which perturb metal homeostasis at the cellular and organismal levels. Herein, we review how these metals affect brain physiology and immunity, as well as their roles in the accumulation of toxic AD proteinaceous species (i.e., ß-amyloid and tau). We also discuss studies that validate the disruption of immune-related pathways as an important mechanism of toxicity by which metals can contribute to AD. Our goal is to increase the awareness of metals as players in the onset and progression of AD.

Inflammation: the link between comorbidities, genetics, and Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder, most cases of which lack a clear causative event. This has made the disease difficult to characterize and, thus, diagnose. Although some cases are genetically linked, there are many diseases and lifestyle factors that can lead to an increased risk of developing AD, including traumatic brain injury, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other metabolic syndromes, in addition to aging. Identifying common factors and trends between these conditions could enhance our understanding of AD and lead to the development of more effective treatments. Although the immune system is one of the body's key defense mechanisms, chronic inflammation has been increasingly linked with several age-related diseases. Moreover, it is now well accepted that chronic inflammation has an important role in the onset and progression of AD. In this review, the different inflammatory signals associated with AD and its risk factors will be outlined to demonstrate how chronic inflammation may be influencing individual susceptibility to AD. Our goal is to bring attention to potential shared signals presented by the immune system during different conditions that could lead to the development of successful treatments.

A role for tropomyosins in activity-dependent bulk endocytosis?

Bulk endocytosis allows stimulated neurons to take up a large portion of the presynaptic plasma membrane in order to regenerate synaptic vesicle pools. Actin, one of the most abundant proteins in eukaryotic cells, plays an important role in this process, but a detailed mechanistic understanding of the involvement of the cortical actin network is still lacking, in part due to the relatively small size of nerve terminals and the limitation of optical microscopy. We recently discovered that neurosecretory cells display a similar, albeit much larger, form of bulk endocytosis in response to secretagogue stimulation. This allowed us to identify a novel highly dynamic role for the acto-myosin II cortex in generating constricting rings that precede the fission of nascent bulk endosomes. In this review we focus on the mechanism underpinning this dramatic switch in the organization and function of the cortical actin network. We provide additional experimental data that suggest a role of tropomyosin Tpm3.1 and Tpm4.2 in this process, together with an emerging model of how actin controls bulk endocytosis.

A core metabolic enzyme mediates resistance to phosphine gas.

Phosphine is a small redox-active gas that is used to protect global grain reserves, which are threatened by the emergence of phosphine resistance in pest insects. We find that polymorphisms responsible for genetic resistance cluster around the redox-active catalytic disulfide or the dimerization interface of dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (DLD) in insects (Rhyzopertha dominica and Tribolium castaneum) and nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans). DLD is a core metabolic enzyme representing a new class of resistance factor for a redox-active metabolic toxin. It participates in four key steps of core metabolism, and metabolite profiles indicate that phosphine exposure in mutant and wild-type animals affects these steps differently. Mutation of DLD in C. elegans increases arsenite sensitivity. This specific vulnerability may be exploited to control phosphine-resistant insects and safeguard food security.

Laterally orienting C. elegans using geometry at microscale for high-throughput visual screens in neurodegeneration and neuronal development studies.

C. elegans is an excellent model system for studying neuroscience using genetics because of its relatively simple nervous system, sequenced genome, and the availability of a large number of transgenic and mutant strains. Recently, microfluidic devices have been used for high-throughput genetic screens, replacing traditional methods of manually handling C. elegans. However, the orientation of nematodes within microfluidic devices is random and often not conducive to inspection, hindering visual analysis and overall throughput. In addition, while previous studies have utilized methods to bias head and tail orientation, none of the existing techniques allow for orientation along the dorso-ventral body axis. Here, we present the design of a simple and robust method for passively orienting worms into lateral body positions in microfluidic devices to facilitate inspection of morphological features with specific dorso-ventral alignments. Using this technique, we can position animals into lateral orientations with up to 84% efficiency, compared to 21% using existing methods. We isolated six mutants with neuronal development or neurodegenerative defects, showing that our technology can be used for on-chip analysis and high-throughput visual screens.

Mitochondrial uncouplers act synergistically with the fumigant phosphine to disrupt mitochondrial membrane potential and cause cell death.

Phosphine is the most widely used fumigant for the protection of stored commodities against insect pests, especially food products such as grain. However, pest insects are developing resistance to phosphine and thereby threatening its future use. As phosphine inhibits cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV) of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and reduces the strength of the mitochondrial membrane potential (DeltaPsi(m)), we reasoned that mitochondrial uncouplers should act synergistically with phosphine. The mitochondrial uncouplers FCCP and PCP caused complete mortality in populations of both wild-type and phosphine-resistant lines of Caenorhabditis elegans simultaneously exposed to uncoupler and phosphine at concentrations that were individually nonlethal. Strong synergism was also observed with a third uncoupler DNP. We have also tested an alternative complex IV inhibitor, azide, with FCCP and found that this also caused a synergistic enhancement of toxicity in C. elegans. To investigate potential causes of the synergism, we measured DeltaPsi(m), ATP content, and oxidative damage (lipid hydroperoxides) in nematodes subjected to phosphine-FCCP treatment and found that neither an observed 50% depletion in ATP nor oxidative stress accounted for the synergistic effect. Instead, a synergistic reduction in DeltaPsi(m) was observed upon phosphine-FCCP co-treatment suggesting that this is directly responsible for the subsequent mortality. These results support the hypothesis that phosphine-induced mortality results from the in vivo disruption of normal mitochondrial activity. Furthermore, we have identified a novel pathway that can be targeted to overcome genetic resistance to phosphine.

Disruption of iron homeostasis increases phosphine toxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The aim of this study is to identify the biochemical mechanism of phosphine toxicity and resistance, using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism. To date, the precise mode of phosphine action is unclear. In this report, we demonstrate the following dose-dependent actions of phosphine, in vitro: (1) reduction of ferric iron (Fe3+) to ferrous iron (Fe2+), (2) release of iron from horse ferritin, (3) and the peroxidation of lipid as a result of iron release from ferritin. Using in situ hybridization, we show that the ferritin genes of C. elegans, both ferritin-1 and ferritin-2, are expressed along the digestive tract with greatest expression at the proximal and distal ends. Basal expression of the ferritin-2 gene, as determined by quantitative PCR, is approximately 80 times that of ferritin-1. However, transcript levels of ferritin-1 are induced at least 20-fold in response to phosphine, whereas there is no change in the level of ferritin-2. This resembles the reported pattern of ferritin gene regulation by iron, suggesting that phosphine toxicity may be related to an increase in the level of free iron. Indeed, iron overload increases phosphine toxicity in C. elegans at least threefold. Moreover, we demonstrate that suppression of ferritin-2 gene expression by RNAi, significantly increases sensitivity to phosphine. This study identifies similarities between phosphine toxicity and iron overload and demonstrates that phosphine can trigger iron release from storage proteins, increasing lipid peroxidation, leading to cell injury and/or cell death.

Comparative toxicity of fumigants and a phosphine synergist using a novel containment chamber for the safe generation of concentrated phosphine gas.

BACKGROUND: With the phasing out of ozone-depleting substances in accordance with the United Nations Montreal Protocol, phosphine remains as the only economically viable fumigant for widespread use. However the development of high-level resistance in several pest insects threatens the future usage of phosphine; yet research into phosphine resistance mechanisms has been limited due to the potential for human poisoning in enclosed laboratory environments. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe a custom-designed chamber for safely containing phosphine gas generated from aluminium phosphide tablets. In an improvement on previous generation systems, this chamber can be completely sealed to control the escape of phosphine. The device has been utilised in a screening program with C. elegans that has identified a phosphine synergist, and quantified the efficacy of a new fumigant against that of phosphine. The phosphine-induced mortality at 20 degrees C has been determined with an LC(50) of 732 ppm. This result was contrasted with the efficacy of a potential new botanical pesticide dimethyl disulphide, which for a 24 hour exposure at 20 degrees C is 600 times more potent than phosphine (LC(50) 1.24 ppm). We also found that co-administration of the glutathione depletor diethyl maleate (DEM) with a sublethal dose of phosphine (70 ppm,

Caenorhabditis elegans mutants resistant to phosphine toxicity show increased longevity and cross-resistance to the synergistic action of oxygen.

Phosphine (hydrogen phosphide, PH3) is the fumigant most widely used to protect stored products from pest infestation. Despite the importance of this chemical, little is known about its mode of action. We have created three phosphine-resistant lines (pre-1, pre-7, pre-33) in the model organism C. elegans, with LC50 values 2, 5, and 9 times greater than the fully susceptible parental strain. Molecular oxygen was shown to be an extremely effective synergist with phosphine as, under hyperoxic conditions, 100% mortality was observed in wild-type nematodes exposed to 0.1 mg/l phosphine, a nonlethal concentration in air. All three mutants were resistant to the synergistic effects of oxygen in proportion to their resistance to phosphine with one mutant, pre-33, showing complete resistance to this synergism. We take the proportionality of cross-resistance between phosphine and the synergistic effect of oxygen to imply that all three mutants circumvent a mechanism of phosphine toxicity that is directly coupled to oxygen metabolism. Compared with the wild-type strain, all three mutants have an extended average life expectancy of from 12.5 to 25.3%. This is consistent with the proposed involvement of oxidative stress in both phosphine toxicity and ageing. Because the wild-type and mutant nematodes develop at the same rate, the longevity is unlikely to be caused by a clk-type reduction in oxidative metabolism, a potential alternative mechanism of phosphine resistance.