Space-Like Irradiation Exacerbated Cognitive Deficits and Amyloid Pathology in CRND8 Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease.

Background: Space radiation was linked to neurological damage and behavioral deficits which raised concerns of increased degenerative risk on the brain and development of Alzheimer's disease following space travel.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the effects of irradiation by 56Fe and 28Si in CRND8 mice, an Alzheimer's disease mouse model.

Methods: Six-month-old CRND8 mice were exposed to whole body irradiation by 56Fe and 28Si at 0.5 Gy and 2 Gy doses. Behavior tests were administered 1-month to 3-months post-irradiation. Amyloid deposition and other pathological changes were analyzed 3-months and/or 6-months post-irradiation.

Results: The Novel Object Recognition test showed some decline in 8-month-old mice compared to non-irradiated CRND8 mice. Male mice also showed a loss of freezing behavior in the fear conditioning contextual test following irradiation. Golgi staining revealed a loss of spines in hippocampal neurons after irradiation. Total amyloid immunohistochemistry showed a robust increase in 3-months post-irradiation 56Fe groups which became normalized to non-irradiated group by 6-months post-irradiation. However, 2 Gy 28Si caused a trend towards increased plaque load at 3-months post-irradiation which became significant at 6-months post irradiation only in male CRND8 mice. While 0.5 Gy Fe did not induce obvious changes in the total number of iba-1 positive microglia, more hippocampal microglia were found to express PCNA after 0.5 Gy Fe treatment, suggesting potential involvement of microglial dysfunction.

Conclusions: Overall, our study provides new evidence of gender-specific and ion-dependent effects of space radiation on cognition and amyloid pathology in AD models.