Thesis (M.S.)--George Mason University, 2008. / Vita: p. 48. Thesis director: Dmitri Klimov. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 17, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-47). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2008. / [School of Medicine] Department of Neurosciences. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-123).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2007. Dept. of Chemistry. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-87).

Several lines of evidence suggest that the expression of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) is altered with age and in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, however, published results have been contradictory. Furthermore, a relationship between the expression of PrPC and Tau has started to emerge. We have revealed a specific relationship between the expression of PrPC and Tau in neuroblastoma cell lines and transgenic mouse models. In addition, we identified that the expression levels of PrPC are reduced in multiple brain regions following the progression of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, the reduction in PrPC expression significantly correlated with the reduction in Tau expression and coincided with an increase in Tau pathology. In addition, data from neuroblastoma cell lines implicated the glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchor and in part the localisation of PrPC to lipid rafts in mediating these alterations to Tau. We hypothesise that the reduction in PrPC expression reflects a primary mechanism in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis and indirectly triggers the reduction in Tau expression which subsequently contributes to neuronal destabilisation and disruption to neuronal function. Soluble oligomeric forms of amyloid-beta are the primary pathogenic species in Alzheimer’s disease and strongly correlate with the presence and severity of cognitive decline. PrPC acts as a high affinity neuronal receptor for amyloid-beta oligomers and triggers pathogenic signaling cascades which induce synaptic impairment and further exacerbate neuronal destabilisation. We demonstrated that Flotillin-1 and the lipid raft localisation of PrPC are essential for the binding of amyloid-beta oligomers to PrPC. Furthermore, the metabotropic glutamate receptor, mGluR5 plays a pivotal role in the aberrant signaling of PrPC, and this PrPC/mGluR5 complex provides a mechanistic link between extracellular amyloid-beta oligomers and intracellular Tau phosphorylation, by Fyn kinase, Pyk2 and possibly by inactivation of the protein phosphatase, PP2A. Considering there is now strong evidence that Tau is the mediator of amyloid-beta induced toxicity, the reduction in Tau levels mediated by PrPC may be a protective mechanism. amyloid-beta oligomers interact with a multitude of neuronal receptors in addition to PrPC. It is likely that activation of multiple receptor complexes and signalling cascades are responsible for synaptic impairment and Tau phosphorylation induced by amyloid-beta, however, these complexes remain to be fully determined. Investigating amyloid-beta oligomer induced Tau phosphorylation in vitro has proven challenging, however, we suggest that a functional, mature, neuronal model is necessary to induce the complex mechanisms linking extracellular amyloid-beta oligomers and the phosphorylation of intracellular Tau. A greater understanding of the complex relationship between amyloid-beta, PrPC and Tau will aid in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease and in the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for this progressive neurodegenerative disease.

Transthyretin-related amyloidosis (ATTR) is a disease involving the formation of a misfolded transthyretin (TTR) protein and resulting insoluble aggregates that deposit in extracellular regions of various tissues and organs. There are hereditary forms of the disease, referred to as ATTRm, and more than 100 TTR amyloid-forming mutants have been reported. The major goal of this work was to analyze the biochemical and biophysical properties of a unique and recently identified TTR mutant protein, TTR Glu51_Ser52dup, found in a patient with ATTRm. Unlike other single nucleotide replacements that have been described as amyloidogenic, the gene abnormality in the present case is the first identification of a TTR duplication mutation. The patient with TTR Glu51_Ser52dup exhibited an extremely aggressive form of ATTRm; clinical symptoms included peripheral neuropathy at baseline evaluation and rapid disease progression to early death from pneumonia and congestive heart failure. We hypothesized that the TTR Glu51_Ser52dup variant would be less stable than the wild-type protein and similar in stability to another highly amyloidogenic mutant, TTR L55P; moreover, the highly unstable nature of this TTR variant would provide a basis for understanding the extremely aggressive clinical phenotype observed in this case. Using Escherichia coli (E. coli) as an expression system and an appropriately modified expression vector, we produced histidine-tagged recombinant human TTR Glu51_Ser52dup protein in high yield and purified to homogeneity. Structural and stability studies were performed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and SDS-PAGE analysis. We demonstrated that TTR Glu51_Ser52dup was less stable than the wild-type or L55P proteins when measured under different types of denaturing conditions, including thermal and chemical stress. The presence of diflunisal, a drug that stabilizes tetrameric TTR and is currently approved for treatment of ATTRm, was also investigated; our results indicated that diflunisal stabilized the TTR Glu51_Ser52dup protein. Collectively, the data obtained from these studies suggest that Glu51_Ser52dup is one of the least stable and most amyloidogenic TTR variant described to date. Future investigations are necessary to determine which specific structural elements of the protein destabilize the TTR tetramer, and precisely characterize the binding of small molecules, including diflunisal, to the protein.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposition, neurofibrillary tangles and cognitive decline. Clinical data suggest that diabetes may be a risk factor for AD and several studies have linked pro-diabetic diets with an acceleration of AD pathology. Consequently, we hypothesized that the 3xTg AD-like mouse model may show impaired glucose tolerance, therefore; we examined whether glucose tolerance was altered in the 3xTg mouse model of AD early in the pathogenesis (prior to Abeta plaques, neurofibrillary tangle sand cognitive decline) and if so, did it persist throughout. Specifically, 1, 2-3, 4-6, 8-10 and 17 month old male 3xTg mice and wild-type counterparts were assessed for fasting glucose levels, glucose tolerance, plasma insulin levels, insulin sensitivity and the neural and behavioral pathological characteristics of AD. At 1 month, 3xTg mice compared to wild-type controls exhibited impaired glucose tolerance during an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (ipGTT), a trend for reduced fasting plasma insulin levels at time 0 and significantly reduced fasting plasma insulin levels 15 minutes post glucose bolus suggesting a possible defect in beta cell function. Interestingly, the glucose intolerance was not a consequence of altered food intake or body weight since these parameters were similar between the 3xTg mice and wild-type controls. Moreover, responsiveness to exogenous insulin during the intraperitoneal insulin tolerance test was not significantly different suggesting equivalent insulin sensitivity. During aging both 3xTg mice and controls exhibited exacerbated changes in fasting glucose levels and glucose tolerance. Interestingly, while control animals show an increase in fasting insulin levels with age, 3xTg mice do not. Immunohistochemical staining for 6E10 and Abeta 1-42 revealed only intraneuronal deposition of reaction product in 3xTg mice with no extracellular depositions noted until 14 months of age. Immunoreactivity of p-tau was observed at 1 month in the hippocampus and cortex and worsened throughout the time period examined. Behavioral deficits began to be detected in 3xTg mice relative to wild-type controls at 21 months of age. The islets in the pancreas suggest that at 2-3 months of age 3xTg mice compared to wild-type controls have a significantly lower amount of immunoreactivity for insulin within their islets although islet size did not differ between groups and this persisted throughout all the time points examined (4-6 and 8-10 months). Taken together, these data reveal that the AD-like 3xTg mouse model exhibits a pro-diabetic phenotype early in the development of AD-like pathology and that this metabolic deficit persists throughout their lifespan raising the question of whether altered glucose regulation and insulin production/secretion could contribute to AD pathogenesis.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterised by a series of biomolecular aggregation events, which include the formation of neurotoxic protein structures composed of the β-amyloid (Aβ) peptide. In this thesis, fluorescence self-quenching (FSQ) between fluorescently-labelled peptides is introduced as a strategy for detecting and characterizing Aβ aggregates in solution, and for overcoming limitations associated with conventional methods. Using a combination of steady-state, picosecond time-resolved fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy, the fluorescence response of HiLyte Fluor 555-labelled Aβ peptides is characterised to demonstrate that Aβ self-assembly organizes the covalently attached probes in close proximity to trigger the self-quenching sensing process over a broad range of conditions. Importantly, N-terminal tagging of β-amyloid peptides is shown to not alter the self-assembly kinetics or the resulting aggregated structures. When performed in Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) format, this method becomes a ratiometric platform to gain insights into amyloid structure and for standardizing in vitro studies of amyloid self-assembly. The ability of FSQ-based methods to monitor the inhibition of Aβ aggregation by model test compounds including the small heat shock protein (Hsp), the amyloid-binding alcohol dehydrogenase protein (ABAD) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) is also demonstrated. Given that Aβ is formed within the cell membrane and is known to induce its disruption, sophisticated single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy methods were developed to quantify membrane dynamics induced by the presence of disrupting agents, such as Aβ and detergents. The solubilisation dynamics of single liposomes induced by the non-ionic surfactant Triton-X 100 (TX-100) were studied in real-time. Using this approach, the swelling and permeabilization steps of the solubilisation process were unambiguously separated within single FRET trajectories, and their kinetic details as a function of Triton-X 100 and presence of cholesterol within the membrane structure were examined. Finally, single-molecule stepwise-photobleaching techniques were employed to study the effect of Aβ oligomers interacting with supported-lipid bilayers, establishing a platform from which to investigate how the presence of a membrane layer affects Aβ oligomerization at the level of individual molecules. Overall, the fluorescence-based strategies for amyloid- and liposome-sensing presented in this work bridges the gap between current morphology-specific techniques and highly-specialized single-molecule methods to provide a biophysical toolbox to investigate the changes in structure, size and molecular interactions accompanying the amyloid aggregation pathway and for the screening of novel therapeutic and diagnostic agents.

Neuroinflammation occurs in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain, and plays a role in neurodegeneration. The main aim of this study was to determine how treatments with exogenous apolipoprotein E (ApoE2, E3 and E4 isoforms), a genetic risk factor for AD, affects the amyloid-β (Aβ) induced inflammatory response in vitro in astrocytes. Recombinant, lipid-free ApoE4 was found not to affect Aβ-induced inflammation in rat astrocytes, while ApoE2 showed a protective effect. Mouse cells expressing human ApoE isoforms, which have similar lipidation and modification to native human ApoE, showed ApoE4 promoting inflammation, and no ApoE2 protective effect upon Aβ treatment. A Protein/DNA array was used to screen 345 transcription factors in rat astrocytes treated with Aβ and/or ApoE isoforms, in order to determine which contribute to the observed ApoE2 protection. Some candidates were validated by Western Blot or EMSA and/or by inhibition or activation. The findings suggest ApoE isoforms differentially regulate Aβ-induced inflammation, and multiple signalling pathways are involved in the process.