Selection of lansoprazole from an FDA-approved drug library to inhibit the Alzheimer's disease seed-dependent formation of tau aggregates.

The efficacy of current treatments is still insufficient for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of Dementia. Out of the two pathological hallmarks of AD amyloid-ß plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, comprising of tau protein, tau pathology strongly correlates with the symptoms of AD. Previously, screening for inhibitors of tau aggregation that target recombinant tau aggregates have been attempted. Since a recent cryo-EM analysis revealed distinct differences in the folding patterns of heparin-induced recombinant tau filaments and AD tau filaments, this study focused on AD seed-dependent tau aggregation in drug repositioning for AD. We screened 763 compounds from an FDA-approved drug library using an AD seed-induced tau aggregation in SH-SY5Y cell-based assay. In the first screening, 180 compounds were selected, 72 of which were excluded based on the results of lactate dehydrogenase assay. In the third screening with evaluations of soluble and insoluble tau, 38 compounds were selected. In the fourth screening with 3 different AD seeds, 4 compounds, lansoprazole, calcipotriene, desogestrel, and pentamidine isethionate, were selected. After AD seed-induced real-time quaking-induced conversion, lansoprazole was selected as the most suitable drug for repositioning. The intranasal administration of lansoprazole for 4 months to AD seed-injected mice improved locomotor activity and reduced both the amount of insoluble tau and the extent of phosphorylated tau-positive areas. Alanine replacement of the predicted binding site to an AD filament indicated the involvement of Q351, H362, and K369 in lansoprazole and C-shaped tau filaments. These results suggest the potential of lansoprazole as a candidate for drug repositioning to an inhibitor of tau aggregate formation in AD.

α-Synuclein V15A Variant in Familial Parkinson's Disease Exhibits a Weaker Lipid-Binding Property.

BACKGROUND: The α-Synuclein (α-Syn) V15A variant has been found in two Caucasian families with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the significance of this missense variant remained unclear. OBJECTIVE: We sought to elucidate whether V15A could increase aggregation or change phospholipid affinity. METHODS: A sequencing analysis for the SNCA encoding α-Syn from 875 patients with PD and 324 control subjects was performed. Comparing with known pathogenic missense variants of α-Syn, A30P, and A53T, we analyzed the effects of V15A on binding to phospholipid membrane, self-aggregation, and seed-dependent aggregation in cultured cells. RESULTS: Genetic screening identified SNCA c.44 T>C (p.V15A) from two Japanese PD families. The missense variant V15A was extremely rare in several public databases and predicted as pathogenic using in silico tools. The amplification activity of α-Syn V15A fibrils was stronger than that of wild-type α-Syn fibrils. CONCLUSIONS: The discovery of the V15A variant from Japanese families reinforces the possibility that the V15A variant may be a causative variant for developing PD. V15A had a reduced affinity for phospholipids and increased propagation activity compared with wild-type. © 2022 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

α-Synuclein Seeding Assay Using Cultured Cells.

α-Synuclein, a presynaptic protein, is involved in synaptic vesicle dynamics in response to neuronal activity. Mutations of the α-synuclein gene and the neuronal deposition of α-synuclein, called Lewy bodies, are linked to the development of Parkinson's disease. α-Synuclein has a prion-like property that converts its physiological protein conformation to a pathogenic one, forming disease-causing fibrils. Aggregation of these fibrils and subsequent inclusion formation are suggested to interfere with vesicular trafficking and organelle function in neurons. Thus, detection of a prion-like property of α-synuclein and the evaluation of its modifying factors are required to understand the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease and to develop new therapies. In this chapter, we describe a cell-based assay for detecting α-synuclein propagation.

High-fat diet-induced activation of SGK1 promotes Alzheimer's disease-associated tau pathology.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has long been considered a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the molecular links between T2DM and AD remain obscure. Here, we reported that serum-/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) is activated by administering a chronic high-fat diet (HFD), which increases the risk of T2DM, and thus promotes Tau pathology via the phosphorylation of tau at Ser214 and the activation of a key tau kinase, namely, GSK-3ß, forming SGK1-GSK-3ß-tau complex. SGK1 was activated under conditions of elevated glucocorticoid and hyperglycemia associated with HFD, but not of fatty acid-mediated insulin resistance. Elevated expression of SGK1 in the mouse hippocampus led to neurodegeneration and impairments in learning and memory. Upregulation and activation of SGK1, SGK1-GSK-3ß-tau complex were also observed in the hippocampi of AD cases. Our results suggest that SGK1 is a key modifier of tau pathology in AD, linking AD to corticosteroid effects and T2DM.

Learning Deficits Accompanied by Microglial Proliferation After the Long-Term Post-Injection of Alzheimer's Disease Brain Extract in Mouse Brains.

BACKGROUND: Human tauopathy brain injections into the mouse brain induce the development of tau aggregates, which spread to functionally connected brain regions; however, the features of this neurotoxicity remain unclear. One reason may be short observational periods because previous studies mostly used mutated-tau transgenic mice and needed to complete the study before these mice developed neurofibrillary tangles. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether long-term incubation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain in the mouse brain cause functional decline. METHODS: We herein used Tg601 mice, which overexpress wild-type human tau, and non-transgenic littermates (NTg) and injected an insoluble fraction of the AD brain into the unilateral hippocampus. RESULTS: After a long-term (17-19 months) post-injection, mice exhibited learning deficits detected by the Barnes maze test. Aggregated tau pathology in the bilateral hippocampus was more prominent in Tg601 mice than in NTg mice. No significant changes were observed in the number of Neu-N positive cells or astrocytes in the hippocampus, whereas that of Iba-I-positive microglia increased after the AD brain injection. CONCLUSION: These results potentially implicate tau propagation in functional decline and indicate that long-term changes in non-mutated tau mice may reflect human pathological conditions.

Strain-specific clearance of seed-dependent tau aggregation by lithium-induced autophagy.

Different conformational strains of tau have been implicated in the clinicopathological heterogeneity of tauopathies. In this study, we hypothesized that distinct strains are degraded in a different manner. Lithium, a drug for bipolar disorder, had previously been reported to reduce aggregation-prone protein content by promoting autophagy. Here, we assessed the effects of lithium on tau aggregates using different tauopathy brain seeds. SH-SY5Y cells were transfected with C-terminal tau fragment Tau-CTF24 (residues 243-441), and Alzheimer's disease (AD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) brain seeds were introduced. After 48-h lithium treatment, sarkosyl-insoluble fractions were prepared. Lithium treatment was found to reduce the amount of insoluble tau and p62, and increase LC3-II levels along with the number of autophagic vacuoles in AD-seeded cells. The effects were lower in case of CBD seeds, and comparable between PSP and AD seeds. An inhibitor of myo-inositol monophosphatase (IMPase) also demonstrated similar effects. Overall, the study suggested that aggregated tau protein is degraded by lithium-induced autophagy, influencing IMPase in a strain-specific manner.

Asparagine residue 368 is involved in Alzheimer's disease tau strain-specific aggregation.

In tauopathies, tau forms pathogenic fibrils with distinct conformations (termed "tau strains") and acts as an aggregation "seed" templating the conversion of normal tau into isomorphic fibrils. Previous research showed that the aggregation core of tau fibril covers the C-terminal region (243-406 amino acids (aa)) and differs among the diseases. However, the mechanisms by which distinct fibrous structures are formed and inherited via templated aggregation are still unknown. Here, we sought to identify the key sequences of seed-dependent aggregation. To identify sequences for which deletion reduces tau aggregation, SH-SY5Y cells expressing a series of 10 partial deletion (Del 1-10, covering 244-400 aa) mutants of tau-CTF24 (243-441 aa) were treated with tau seeds prepared from a different tauopathy patient's brain (Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration) or recombinant tau, and then seed-dependent tau aggregation was assessed biochemically. We found that the Del 8 mutant lacking 353-368 aa showed significantly decreased aggregation in both cellular and in vitro models. Furthermore, to identify the minimum sequence responsible for tau aggregation, we systematically repeated cellular tau aggregation assays for the delineation of shorter deletion sites and revealed that Asn-368 mutation suppressed tau aggregation triggered by an AD tau seed, but not using other tauopathy seeds. Our study suggested that 353-368 aa is a novel aggregation-responsible sequence other than PHF6 and PHF6*, and within this sequence, the Asn-368 residue plays a role in strain-specific tau aggregation in different tauopathies.

Tau aggregation and seeding analyses of two novel MAPT variants found in patients with motor neuron disease and progressive parkinsonism.

Variants in the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) gene cause the genetic tauopathies, a subgroup of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) disorders. Through genetic screening of 165 cases possibly associated with tauopathies, including 88 Alzheimer's disease, 26 behavioral variant FTD, eight primary progressive aphasia, nine FTD with motor neuron disease, 21 progressive supranuclear palsy, and 13 corticobasal syndrome, we identified two novel MAPT variants: a heterozygous missense variant, p.P160S, in a patient with FTD with motor neuron disease and a heterozygous insertional variant, p.K298_H299insQ, in three patients with familial progressive supranuclear palsy. The corresponding recombinant tau proteins showed reduced microtubule assembly and increased aggregation by thioflavin S assay. Exon trapping analysis showed that p.K298_H299insQ resulted in the overproduction of 4-repeat tau. In a cell-based model, p.K298_H299insQ had both a higher aggregation ability and seeding activity compared with wild-type tau. These findings indicate that both p.P160S and p.K298_H299insQ may relate to neurodegeneration.

Templated Aggregation of TAR DNA-binding Protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43) by Seeding with TDP-43 Peptide Fibrils.

TAR DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (TDP-43) has been identified as the major component of ubiquitin-positive neuronal and glial inclusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Aggregation of TDP-43 to amyloid-like fibrils and spreading of the aggregates are suggested to account for the pathogenesis and progression of these diseases. To investigate the molecular mechanisms of TDP-43 aggregation, we attempted to identify the amino acid sequence required for the aggregation. By expressing a series of deletion mutants lacking 20 amino acid residues in the C-terminal region in SH-SY5Y cells, we established that residues 274-313 in the glycine-rich region are essential for aggregation. In vitro aggregation experiments using synthetic peptides of 40 amino acids from this sequence and adjacent regions showed that peptides 274-313 and 314-353 formed amyloid-like fibrils. Transduction of these fibrils induced seed-dependent aggregation of TDP-43 in cells expressing wild-type TDP-43 or TDP-43 lacking nuclear localization signal. These cells showed different phosphorylated C-terminal fragments of TDP-43 and different trypsin-resistant bands. These results suggest that residues 274-353 are responsible for the conversion of TDP-43 to amyloid-like fibrils and that templated aggregation of TDP-43 by seeding with different peptides induces various types of TDP-43 pathologies, i.e. the peptides appear to act like prion strains.