Altered Energy Metabolism Pathways in the Posterior Cingulate in Young Adult Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 Carriers.

The APOE gene, encoding apolipoprotein E, is the primary genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 allele (APOE4) carriers have alterations in brain structure and function (as measured by brain imaging) even as young adults. Examination of this population is valuable in further identifying details of these functional changes and their association with vulnerability to AD decades later.

Apolipoprotein E as a β-amyloid-independent factor in Alzheimer's disease.

APOE, which encodes apolipoprotein E, is the most prevalent and best established genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Current understanding of Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology posits an important role for apolipoprotein E in the disease cascade via its interplay with β-amyloid. However, evidence is also emerging for roles of apolipoprotein E in the disease process that are independent of β-amyloid.

Isolation and characterization of antibody fragments selective for specific protein morphologies from nanogram antigen samples.

We developed atomic force microscope (AFM)-based protocols that enable isolation and characterization of antibody-based reagents that selectively bind target protein variants using low nanogram amounts or less of unpurified starting material. We isolated single-chain antibody fragments (scFvs) that specifically recognize an oligomeric beta-amyloid (Aβ) species correlated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) using only a few nanograms of an enriched but not purified sample obtained from human AD brain tissue. We used several subtractive panning steps to remove all phage binding nondesired antigens and then used a single positive panning step using minimal antigen.

APOE and neuroenergetics: an emerging paradigm in Alzheimer's disease.

APOE is the major known genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Though relationships between APOE-encoded apolipoprotein E and β-amyloid are increasingly well described, mounting evidence supports wide-ranging effects of APOE on the brain. Specifically, APOE appears to affect brain network activity and closely related neuroenergetic functions that might be involved in vulnerability to neurodegenerative pathophysiology.

Broad-based nutritional supplementation in 3xTg mice corrects mitochondrial function and indicates sex-specificity in response to Alzheimer's disease intervention.

Nutrition has been highlighted as a potential factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk and decline and has been investigated as a therapeutic target. Broad-based combination diet therapies have the potential to simultaneously effect numerous protective and corrective processes, both directly (e.g.

Biochemical and morphological characterization of the AβPP/PS/tau triple transgenic mouse model and its relevance to sporadic Alzheimer's disease.

Transgenic (Tg) mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been genetically altered with human familial AD genes driven by powerful promoters. However, a Tg model must accurately mirror the pathogenesis of the human disease, not merely the signature amyloid and/or tau pathology, as such hallmarks can arise via multiple convergent or even by pathogenic mechanisms unrelated to human sporadic AD. The 3 × Tg-AD mouse simultaneously expresses 3 rare familial mutant genes that in humans independently produce devastating amyloid-β protein precursor (AβPP), presenilin-1, and frontotemporal dementias; hence, technically speaking, these mice are not a model of sporadic AD, but are informative in assessing co-evolving amyloid and tau pathologies.

Reduced posterior cingulate mitochondrial activity in expired young adult carriers of the APOE ε4 allele, the major late-onset Alzheimer's susceptibility gene.

In vivo PET imaging studies of young-adult carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOEε4), the major Alzheimer's disease (AD) susceptibility gene, have demonstrated declines in glucose metabolism in brain areas later vulnerable to AD, such as posterior cingulate cortex, decades before the possible onset of symptoms. We have previously shown in postmortem studies that such metabolic declines in AD are associated with brain regional mitochondrial dysfunction. To determine whether young adult at-risk individuals demonstrate similar mitochondrial functional decline, we histochemically assessed postmortem tissues from the posterior cingulate cortex of young-adult carriers and noncarriers of APOEε4.

Regional cerebral glucose uptake in the 3xTG model of Alzheimer's disease highlights common regional vulnerability across AD mouse models.

We have previously used fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) autoradiography to detect the pattern of metabolic declines in two different transgenic mouse models of fibrillar beta-amyloid pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD), including the PDAPP mouse, which overexpresses a mutant form of human APP, and the PSAPP mouse, which overexpresses mutant forms of the human APP and PS1 genes. In this study, we used the same approach to study a triple-transgenic (3xTG) model of AD, which overexpresses human APP, PS1 and tau mutations, and progressively develops amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and synaptic dysfunction. Densitometric measurements from 55 brain regions were characterized and compared in 2, 12, and 18 month-old 3xTG and wildtype control mice (n = 12/group).

FDG autoradiography reveals developmental and pathological effects of mutant amyloid in PDAPP transgenic mice.

Transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) show some characteristic features of the disease, and we aim to further bridge the gap between studies of humans with AD, those at risk, and these murine models by providing shared markers of disease which could be used to track progression and assess future interventions. Brain imaging measurements may prove useful in this regard. We previously found that the homozygous PDAPP mouse model of AD showed significant declines in glucose uptake with age in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), an area homologous to the human posterior cingulate, which shows significant declines in AD and in those at risk for AD.

Alzheimer's disease is associated with reduced expression of energy metabolism genes in posterior cingulate neurons.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with regional reductions in fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) measurements of the cerebral metabolic rate for glucose, which may begin long before the onset of histopathological or clinical features, especially in carriers of a common AD susceptibility gene. Molecular evaluation of cells from metabolically affected brain regions could provide new information about the pathogenesis of AD and new targets at which to aim disease-slowing and prevention therapies. Data from a genome-wide transcriptomic study were used to compare the expression of 80 metabolically relevant nuclear genes from laser-capture microdissected non-tangle-bearing neurons from autopsy brains of AD cases and normal controls in posterior cingulate cortex, which is metabolically affected in the earliest stages; other brain regions metabolically affected in PET studies of AD or normal aging; and visual cortex, which is relatively spared.

Impaired platelet mitochondrial activity in Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment.

Mitochondrial abnormalities are found in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but previous reports have not examined at-risk groups. In subjects with AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and non-demented aged controls, platelet and lymphocyte mitochondria were isolated and analyzed for Complexes I, III, and IV of the electron transport chain. Western blots were used to control for differential enrichment of samples.

Age- and transgene-related changes in regional cerebral metabolism in PSAPP mice.

In parallel to imaging studies in humans with Alzheimer's disease (AD), we have mapped brain metabolic activity in transgenic mouse models of AD. Our aim in both is to provide new surrogate markers of progression to help clarify disease mechanisms and rapidly screen candidate therapeutics. Since previous findings of preferential reductions in posterior cingulate glucose metabolism may have been confounded by morphological abnormalities in previously studied "PDAPP" transgenic mice, we first assessed hippocampal and callosal anatomy in PSAPP (PS1xAPP) mice, another transgenic mouse model of AD, and found no major abnormalities.

Quantitation of heteroplasmy of mtDNA sequence variants identified in a population of AD patients and controls by array-based resequencing.

The role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been well documented. Though evidence for the role of mitochondria in AD seems incontrovertible, the impact of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations in AD etiology remains controversial. Though mutations in mitochondrially encoded genes have repeatedly been implicated in the pathogenesis of AD, many of these studies have been plagued by lack of replication as well as potential contamination of nuclear-encoded mitochondrial pseudogenes.

Nonprogressive transgene-related callosal and hippocampal changes in PDAPP mice.

We have previously shown that homozygous PDAPP mice, a transgenic model of Alzheimer's-like amyloidosis, have abnormal corpus callosi and anterior hippocampi. Now, we investigated the extent to which these morphological abnormalities are correlated with mutant gene dose in a larger, independent, and substantially younger cohort. Homozygous and heterozygous PDAPP mice had significantly smaller callosal commissure length and anterior hippocampal area than controls.

Effects of estrogen treatment on glutamate uptake in cultured human astrocytes derived from cortex of Alzheimer's disease patients.

Estrogen is thought to play a protective role against neurodegeneration through a variety of mechanisms including the activation of growth factors, the control of synaptic plasticity, and the reduction of response to various insults, such as iron and glutamate. Increasing evidence indicates an increased level of extracellular glutamate and a down-regulation of glutamate transporters in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we show that glutamate uptake in astrocytes derived from Alzheimer's patients is significantly lower than that from non-demented controls.