Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a deterioration of neuronal connectivity. The pathological accumulation of tau in neurons is one of the hallmarks of AD and has been connected to the loss of dendritic spines of pyramidal cells, which are the major targets of cortical excitatory synapses and key elements in memory storage. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying the loss of dendritic spines in individuals with AD are still unclear. Here, we used graph-theory approaches to compare the distribution of dendritic spines from neurons with and without tau pathology of AD individuals. We found that the presence of tau pathology determines the loss of dendritic spines in clusters, ruling out alternative models where spine loss occurs at random locations. Since memory storage has been associated with synaptic clusters, the present results provide a new insight into the mechanisms by which tau drives synaptic damage in AD, paving the way to memory deficits through alterations of spine organization.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91726-x | DOI Listing |
Biomed Pharmacother
January 2025
Departament de Farmacologia, Toxicologia i Química Terapèutica, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Av. de Joan XXIII, 27-31, Barcelona 08028, Spain; Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron, 171, Barcelona 08035, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), Instituto de Carlos III, Av. Monforte de Lemos, 3-5, Madrid 28029, Spain; Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV), Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus, Av. Josep Laporte, 2, Reus 43204, Spain. Electronic address:
The rise of antimicrobial resistance has made necessary the increase of the antibacterial arsenal against multidrug-resistant bacteria. In this context, colistin has re-emerged as a first-line antibiotic in critical situations despite its nephro- and neuro- toxicity at peripheral level. However, the mechanism underlying its toxicity remains unknown, particularly in relation to the central nervous system (CNS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell Mol Biol Lett
January 2025
PhD Program in Medical Neuroscience, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.).
Background: Regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) transport and translation in neurons is essential for dendritic plasticity and learning/memory development. The trafficking of mRNAs along the hippocampal neuron dendrites remains translationally silent until they are selectively transported into the spines upon glutamate-induced receptor activation. However, the molecular mechanism(s) behind the spine entry of dendritic mRNAs under metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR)-mediated neuroactivation and long-term depression (LTD) as well as the fate of these mRNAs inside the spines are still elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Neurosci
January 2025
Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) regulates synaptic transmission through presynaptic receptors in nerve terminals, and its physiological roles are of clinical relevance. The cellular sources and synaptic targets of CB1-expressing terminals in the human cerebral cortex are undefined. We demonstrate a variable laminar pattern of CB1-immunoreactive axons and electron microscopically show that CB1-positive GABAergic terminals make type-2 synapses innervating dendritic shafts (69%), dendritic spines (20%) and somata (11%) in neocortical layers 2-3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNPJ Parkinsons Dis
January 2025
Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network, Chevy Chase, MD, 20852, USA.
ΑBSTRACT: In Parkinson's disease (PD), Lewy pathology deposits in the cerebral cortex, but how the pathology disrupts cortical circuit integrity and function remains poorly understood. To begin to address this question, we injected α-synuclein (αSyn) preformed fibrils (PFFs) into the dorsolateral striatum of mice to seed αSyn pathology in the cortical cortex and induce degeneration of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. We reported that αSyn aggregates accumulate in the motor cortex in a layer- and cell-subtype-specific pattern.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a large cortical structure, expansive across anterior-posterior axes. It is essential for flexibly updating learned behaviors, and paradoxically, also implicated in inflexible and compulsive-like behaviors. Here, we investigated mice bred to display inflexible reward-seeking behaviors that are insensitive to action consequences.
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