Presymptomatic Treatment With Andrographolide Improves Brain Metabolic Markers and Cognitive Behavior in a Model of Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease.

Front Cell Neurosci

Centro de Envejecimiento y Regeneración, Departamento de Biología Celular y Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.

Published: July 2019

AI Article Synopsis

  • Alzheimer's disease (AD) is linked to the buildup of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the brain, leading to neuronal dysfunction and cognitive decline.
  • Research indicates that enhancing Wnt signaling can improve energy metabolism and cognitive function in transgenic mice showing early symptoms of AD.
  • Treatment with the Wnt activator ANDRO in presymptomatic mice not only preserved energy metabolism but also restored synaptic function and cognitive performance, suggesting it could be a promising strategy to delay AD onset.

Article Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. The onset and progression of this pathology are correlated with several changes in the brain, including the formation of extracellular aggregates of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide and the intracellular accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau protein. In addition, dysregulated neuronal plasticity, synapse loss, and a reduction in cellular energy metabolism have also been described. Canonical Wnt signaling has also been shown to be downregulated in AD. Remarkably, we showed previously that the inhibition of Wnt signaling accelerates the appearance of AD markers in transgenic (Tg) and wild-type (WT) mice. Additionally, we found that Wnt signaling stimulates energy metabolism, which is critical for the ability of Wnt to promote the recovery of cognitive function in AD. Therefore, we hypothesized that activation of canonical Wnt signaling in a presymptomatic transgenic animal model of AD would improve some symptoms. To explore the latter, we used a transgenic mouse model (J20 Tg) with mild AD phenotype expression (high levels of amyloid aggregates) and studied the effect of (ANDRO), an activator of canonical Wnt signaling. We found that presymptomatic administration of ANDRO in J20 Tg mice prevented the reduction in cellular energy metabolism markers. Moreover, treated animals showed improvement in cognitive performance. At the synaptic level, J20 Tg animals showed severe deficiencies in presynaptic function as determined by electrophysiological parameters, all of which were completely restored to normal by ANDRO administration. Finally, an analysis of hippocampal synaptosomes by electron microscopy revealed that the length of synapses was restored with ANDRO treatment. Altogether, these data support the idea that the activation of canonical Wnt signaling during presymptomatic stages could represent an interesting pharmacological strategy to delay the onset of AD.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6657419PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2019.00295DOI Listing

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