Background Hyperphosphorylation and intraneuronal aggregation of the microtubule-associated protein tau is a major pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain. Of special interest is the effect of cerebral amyloid beta deposition, the second main hallmark of AD, on human tau pathology. Therefore, studying the influence of cerebral amyloidosis on human tau in a novel human tau knock-in (htau-KI) mouse model could help to reveal new details on their interplay. Methods We studied the effects of a novel human htau-KI under fast-progressing amyloidosis in 5xFAD mice in terms of correlation of gene expression data with human brain regions, development of Alzheimer’s-like pathology, synaptic transmission, and behavior. Results The main findings are an interaction of human beta-amyloid and human tau in crossbred 5xFADxhtau-KI observed at transcriptional level and corroborated by electrophysiology and histopathology. The comparison of gene expression data of the 5xFADxhtau-KI mouse model to 5xFAD, control mice and to human AD patients revealed conspicuous changes in pathways related to mitochondria biology, extracellular matrix, and immune function. These changes were accompanied by plaque-associated MC1-positive pathological tau that required the htau-KI background. LTP deficits were noted in 5xFAD and htau-KI mice in contrast to signs of rescue in 5xFADxhtau-KI mice. Increased frequencies of miniature EPSCs and miniature IPSCs indicated an upregulated presynaptic function in 5xFADxhtau-KI. Conclusion In summary, the multiple interactions observed between knocked-in human tau and the 5xFAD-driven progressing amyloidosis have important implications for future model development in AD.

No description available.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) transgenic animal models of Alzheimer's disease have become versatile tools for basic and translational research. However, there is great heterogeneity of histological, biochemical, and functional data between transgenic mouse lines, which might be due to different transgene expression patterns. Here, the expression of human APP (hAPP) by GABAergic hippocampal interneurons immunoreactive for the calcium binding proteins parvalbumin, calbindin, calretinin, and for the peptide hormone somatostatin was analyzed in Tg2576 mice by double immunofluorescent microscopy. Overall, there was no GABAergic interneuron subpopulation that did not express the transgene. On the other hand, in no case all neurons of such a subpopulation expressed hAPP. In dentate gyrus molecular layer and in stratum lacunosum moleculare less than 10% of hAPP-positive interneurons co-express any of these interneuron markers, whereas in stratum oriens hAPP-expressing neurons frequently co-express these interneuron markers to different proportions. We conclude that these neurons differentially contribute to deficits in young Tg2576 mice before the onset of Abeta plaque pathology. The detailed analysis of distinct brain region and neuron type-specific APP transgene expression patterns is indispensable to understand particular pathological features and mouse line-specific differences in neuronal and systemic functions.

Transgenic animal models are invaluable research tools for elucidating the pathways and mechanisms involved in the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Mechanistic clues can be revealed by applying labelling techniques such as immunohistochemistry or in situ hybridisation to brain tissue sections. Precision in both assigning anatomical location to the sections and quantifying labelled features is crucial for output validity, with a stereological approach or image-based feature extraction typically used. However, both approaches are restricted by the need to manually delineate anatomical regions. To circumvent this limitation, we present the QUINT workflow for quantification and spatial analysis of labelling in series of rodent brain section images based on available 3D reference atlases. The workflow is semi-automated, combining three open source software that can be operated without scripting knowledge, making it accessible to most researchers. As an example, a brain region-specific quantification of amyloid plaques across whole transgenic Tg2576 mouse brain series, immunohistochemically labelled for three amyloid-related antigens is demonstrated. First, the whole brain image series were registered to the Allen Mouse Brain Atlas to produce customised atlas maps adapted to match the cutting plan and proportions of the sections (QuickNII software). Second, the labelling was segmented from the original images by the Random Forest Algorithm for supervised classification (ilastik software). Finally, the segmented images and atlas maps were used to generate plaque quantifications for each region in the reference atlas (Nutil software). The method yielded comparable results to manual delineations and to the output of a stereological method. While the use case demonstrates the QUINT workflow for quantification of amyloid plaques only, the workflow is suited to all mouse or rat brain series with labelling that is visually distinct from the background, for example for the quantification of cells or labelled proteins.

Der Interleukin- 12 (IL-12)-Signalweg spielt eine wichtige Rolle bei der Alzheimer-Krankheit (AD)-bedingten Neuroinflammation, und es hat sich gezeigt, dass seine Hemmung die Pathologie und die kognitiven Defekte in einem AD-Mausmodell abschwächt. Es ist jedoch unklar, wie die IL-12-Ablation die Aβ-Belastung reduziert und kognitive Defekte umkehrt und welche Zelltypen an dieser neuroinflammatorischen Kaskade beteiligt sind. Um diese Fragestellung zu untersuchen, führten wir snRNA-seq-Methoden durch und analysierte ich die zelltypspezifische Antwort auf Il12b im Kontext von AD anhand von gealterten Wildtyp- (WT) und APPPS1-Mäusen, die entweder eine fehlende oder vorhandene IL-12-Signalgebung aufwiesen. Insbesondere fokussiere ich mich insbesondere auf Veränderungen der zellulären Zusammensetzung und der Genexpressionsprofile in einzelnen Zelltypen. Wie erwartet nahm der Anteil der Mikroglia in beiden AD-Mausmodellen zu. Interessanterweise beobachteten wir in den Mäusen, denen die IL-12-Signalisierung fehlte, eine Erholung der Anzahl der Oligodendrozyten. Bemerkenswert ist, dass die genetische Ausschaltung des IL-12-Signalwegs den APPPS1-bedingten Verlust von Myelin-produzierenden Oligodendrozyten, sowie den Verlust von Myelinschichten, als auch die Veränderungen der neuronalen Homöostase rückgängig machte. Darüber hinaus ergaben Trajektorieninferenz und Analyse der Expressionsniveaus von Transkriptionsfaktoren der Oligodendrozytenabstammung eine zeitspezifische Genexpressionsdynamik hinsichtlich der Myelinisierung. Die genetische Ablation der IL-12-Signalübertragung hatte jedoch keinen Einfluss auf das entzündliche Genexpressionsprofil der AD-spezifischen krankheitsassoziierten Mikroglia. Zusammenfassend konnte ich zeigen, dass der IL-12-Signalweg den AD-Phänotyp verursacht, welcher die Oligodendrozyten und Neuronen beeinträchtigt, und dass die Veränderung der Myelinisierung der Hauptphänotyp der IL-12-bedingten Neuroinflammation in einem AD-Mausmodell ist. / The interleukin-12 (IL-12) signaling pathway plays an important role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related neuroinflammation and its inhibition has been shown to attenuate pathology and cognitive defects in an AD mouse models. However, it is unclear how IL-12 ablation reduces Aβ burden and reverses cognitive defects as well as which cell types are involved in this neuroinflammatory cascade. To address this question, we performed snRNA-seq methods and I scrutinized the cell type-specific response to Il12b in an AD specific context from aged wild type (WT) and APPPS1 adult mice, which were lacking or harboring the IL-12 gene signaling. In particular, I focused on changes in cellular composition and gene expression profiles in individual cell types. As expected, the proportion of microglia increased in both AD mice models, but, interestingly, we observed a rescue in the number of mature oligodendrocytes in the mice lacking IL-12 signaling. Notably, genetic ablation of IL-12 signaling reversed the APPPS1-driven loss of myelin sheets as well as alterations in neuronal homeostasis. Furthermore, trajectory inference and analysis of expression levels of transcription factors of oligodendrocytes lineage revealed time-specific gene expression dynamics regarding myelination. However, genetic ablation of IL-12 signaling did not affect the inflammatory gene expression profile of the AD-specific disease-associated microglia. In summary, the results demonstrate how IL-12 signaling alters the AD phenotype, affecting oligodendrocytes and neurons and myelination alteration which is the main phenotypes of IL-12 related neuroinflammation in an AD mice model.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is histopathologically characterized by neurodegeneration, the formation of intracellular neurofibrillary tangles and extracellular Aβ deposits that derive from proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). As rodents do not normally develop Aβ pathology, various transgenic animal models of AD were designed to overexpress human APP with mutations favouring its amyloidogenic processing. However, these mouse models display tremendous differences in the spatial and temporal appearance of Aβ deposits, synaptic dysfunction, neurodegeneration and the manifestation of learning deficits which may be caused by age-related and brain region- specific differences in APP transgene levels. Consequentially, a comparative temporal and regional analysis of the pathological effects of Aβ in mouse brains is difficult complicating the validation of therapeutic AD treatment strategies in different mouse models. To date, no antibodies are available that properly discriminate endogenous rodent and transgenic human APP in brains of APP-transgenic animals. Here, we developed and characterized rat monoclonal antibodies by immunohistochemistry and Western blot that detect human but not murine APP in brains of three APP-transgenic mouse and one APP-transgenic rat model. We observed remarkable differences in expression levels and brain region-specific expression of human APP among the investigated transgenic mouse lines. This may explain the differences between APP-transgenic models mentioned above. Furthermore, we provide compelling evidence that our new antibodies specifically detect endogenous human APP in immunocytochemistry, FACS and immunoprecipitation. Hence, we propose these antibodies as standard tool for monitoring expression of endogenous or transfected APP in human cells and APP expression in transgenic animals.

Extracellular accumulation of Aβ in β-amyloid plaques is thought to be associated with the neurodegeneration observed in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients, although a lack of correlation with cognitive decline raised doubts on this hypothesis. In different transgenic mouse models Aβ accumulates inside the cells and mice develop behavioral deficits well before visible extracellular β-amyloid accumulation. Here we show that intracellular Aβ accumulates in flotillin-1 positive endocytic vesicles. We also demonstrate that flotillin-1 is not only associated with intracellular Aβ in transgenic mice but also with extracellular β-amyloid plaques in AD patient brain sections. / Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG-geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.

La maladie d’Alzheimer est majoritairement sporadique et peu est connu sur les mécanismes déclenchant le développement de cette forme de la maladie. Les études sur la forme familiale ont attribué une importance particulière à la bêta-amyloïde (Aβ), un produit de clivage du précurseur de la protéine amyloïde (APP). Plusieurs facteurs de risques ont été identifiés comme déclencheurs potentiels du développement de la maladie d’Alzheimer dont le diabète de type II (T2D). En effet, la déficience de la signalisation de l’insuline par la désensibilisation des récepteurs de l’insuline (IR) dans le cerveau semble être une caractéristique commune aux deux maladies. Les effets à long terme de la résistance à l’insuline sur l’accumulation d’Aβ et sur la phosphorylation de Tau ont été étudiés, mais les effets de la perturbation aiguë des IR sont moins bien caractérisés. Aussi, les désordres métaboliques sont également des caractéristiques communes aux deux maladies. Le but de notre étude est de déterminer si la perturbation aiguë des IR peut affecter le clivage de l’APP et si la privation énergétique par le jeûne peut sensibiliser ce clivage à la perturbation aiguë des IR. Pour évaluer ceci, nous avons utilisé la Tyrphostin AG1024 à faible dose pour simuler une perturbation des IR plutôt qu’un blocage complet des récepteurs. Pour quantifié le clivage de l’APP, nous avons mesuré les changements de la quantité d’APP taille pleine totale par immunobuvardage de type Western. Pour s’assurer que les changements de la quantité d’APP taille pleine traduisait bien un clivage, nous avons développé un système de lecture par luciférase. Ce système nous permet de suivre le clivage de l’APP via l’expression de la luciférase Firefly puisque le facteur de transcription GAL4 est lié à la portion C-terminale de l’APP . Tout d’abord, nous avons observé que la perturbation aiguë des IR par la Tyrphostin mène au clivage de l’APP et que le jeûne augmente la vulnérabilité au clivage de l’APP suite à une plus petite dose de Tyrphostin. Ce clivage serait imputable à la voie amyloïdogénique puisque l’inhibition de la β-secrétase et de la γ-secrétase empêche le clivage de l’APP. Nous avons aussi montré que la perturbation des IR est nécessaire alors que la perturbation spécifique des IGF-1R n’est pas suffisante. De plus, ni l’autophagie, ni les caspases et ni le protéasomes ne semblent impliqués dans le clivage de l’APP suivant la combinaison du jeûne et de la petite perturbation des IR. L’activité de mTOR n’est également pas requise. Cependant, l’activité de la GSK3 est nécessaire au clivage et semble affecter le clivage par la γ-secrétase. Nous avons ensuite confirmé dans des cultures primaires neuronales que la combinaison du jeûne et de la perturbation aiguë des IR cause le clivage de l’APP et que la GSK3 est encore une fois fortement active. Ainsi, nos résultats suggèrent que la perturbation de la signalisation de l’insuline tel qu’observé dans le T2D augmente le clivage de l’APP via la voie amyloïdogénique et, donc, contribue à la pathologie de la maladie d’Alzheimer. / Little is known about the mechanisms that trigger the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a primarily sporadic disease. Studies on the familial form of AD attributed a particular importance to Amyloid beta (Aβ), a cleavage product of the Amyloid precursor protein (APP). Many risk factors have been identified as potential triggers of the development of AD including Type 2 diabetes (T2D). Indeed, the impairment of insulin signaling by the desensitization of insulin receptors (IR) in the brain seems to be a common hallmark of both diseases. The long term effects of IR resistance on the accumulation of Aβ and Tau hyperphosphorylation have been studied, but the acute effects of IR perturbation is less characterized. Also, both diseases show metabolic defects. Our research aimed to determine whether acute perturbation of IR signaling affects APP processing and if starving (energy deprivation) could sensitize this processing to acute perturbation of IR. To assess this, we used small doses of Tyrphostin AG1024 to simulate IR perturbations rather than a complete blocakade of the receptors. To quantify APP processing, we measured the change of total full- lenght APP by Western blot. To ensure that this change reflected APP processing we developed a luciferase based readout system. This system allowed us to monitor the occurrence of APP cleavage via GAL4-UAS Firefly luciferase driven expression because we linked GAL4 transcription factor to the C-terminal region of APP. First, we showed that IR perturbation with Tyrphostin leads to APP processing and that starving increased IR susceptibility to a smaller doses of Tyrphostin. This APP processing occurs via the amyloidogenic pathway because inhibition of β- and γ-secretase inhibited APP processing. We showed that this processing absolutely requires IR perturbation, while IGF-1R perturbation alone is insufficient. Furthermore, neither autophagy, caspases nor proteasome seemed to be implicated in APP processing following starvation and small IR perturbation. The activity of mTOR is also not required. On the contrary, GSK3 activation is necessary for the processing and seems to affect γ-secretase cleavage. We then confirmed in primary cultured neurons that the combination of acute starvation and small IR perturbation causes APP cleavage and GSK3 is again strongly activated. Taken together, our results suggest that the impairment of IR signalling seen in T2D increases the processing of APP via the amyloidogenic pathway and thereby contributes to the pathology of AD.

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD), i.e., the self-perceived feeling of worsening cognitive function, may be the first notable syndrome of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. However, not all individuals with SCD progress. Stability of SCD, i.e., repeated reports of SCD, could contribute to identify individuals at risk, as stable SCD may more likely reflect the continuous neurodegenerative process of Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Methods: Cox regression analyses were used to assess the association between stability of SCD and progression to MCI and dementia in data derived from the population-based Leipzig Longitudinal Study of the Aged (LEILA75+). Results: Of 453 cognitively unimpaired individuals with a mean age of 80.5 years (SD = 4.2), 139 (30.7 %) reported SCD at baseline. Over the study period (M = 4.8 years, SD = 2.2), 84 (18.5 %) individuals had stable SCD, 195 (43.1 %) unstable SCD and 174 (38.4 %) never reported SCD. Stable SCD was associated with increased risk of progression to MCI and dementia (unadjusted HR = 1.8, 95 % CI = 1.2–2.6; p < .01), whereas unstable SCD yielded a decreased progression risk (unadjusted HR = 0.5, 95 % CI = 0.4–0.7; p < .001) compared to no SCD. When adjusted for baseline cognitive functioning, progression risk in individuals with stable SCD was significantly increased in comparison to individuals with unstable SCD, but not compared to individuals without SCD. Conclusions: Our results, though preliminary, suggest that stable SCD, i.e., repeated reports of SCD, may yield an increased risk of progression to MCI and dementia compared to unstable SCD. Baseline cognitive scores, though within a normal range, seem to be a driver of progression in stable SCD. Future research is warranted to investigate whether stability could hold as a SCD research feature.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia and is alone responsible for 60-70% of all cases of dementia. Though sharing clinical symptoms with other types of dementia, the hallmarks of AD are the abundance of extracellular depositions of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques, intracellular neurofibrillary tangles of hyper phosphorylated tau proteins and synaptic depletion. The onset of the physiological hallmarks may precede clinical symptoms with a decade or more, and once clinical symptoms occur it may be difficult to separate AD from other types of dementia based on clinical symptoms alone. Since the introduction of radiolabeled Aβ tracer substances for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging it is possible to image the Aβ depositions in-vivo, strengthening the confidence in the diagnosis. Because the accumulation of Aβ may occur years before the first clinical symptoms are shown and even reach a plateau, Aβ PET imaging may not be feasible for disease progress monitoring. However, a negative scan may be used to rule out AD as the underlying cause to the clinical symptoms. It may also be used as a predictor to evaluate the risk of developing AD in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as well as monitoring potential effects of anti-amyloid drugs.Though currently validated for dichotomous visual assessment only, there is evidence to suggest that quantification of Aβ PET images may reduce inter-reader variability and aid in the monitoring of treatment effects from anti-amyloid drugs.The aim of this thesis was to refine existing methods and develop new ones for processing, quantification and visualization of Aβ PET images to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of potential treatment of AD in clinical routine. Specifically, the focus for this thesis has been to find a way to fully automatically quantify and visualize a patient’s Aβ PET image in such way that it is presented in a uniform way and show how it relates to what is considered normal. To achieve the aim of the thesis registration algorithms, providing the means to register a patient’s Aβ PET image to a common stereotactic space avoiding the bias of different uptake patterns for Aβ- and Aβ+ images, a suitable region atlas and a 3-dimensional stereotactic surface projections (3D SSP) method, capable of projecting cortical activity onto the surface of a 3D model of the brain without sampling white matter, were developed and evaluated.The material for development and testing comprised 724 individual amyloid PET brain images from six distinct cohorts, ranging from healthy volunteers to definite AD. The new methods could be implemented in a fully automated workflow and were found to be highly accurate, when tested by comparisons to Standards of Truth, such as defining regional uptake from PET images co-registered to magnetic resonance images, post-mortem histopathology and the visual consensus diagnosis of imaging experts.