Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and the generation of oligomeric species of amyloid-β is causal to the initiation and progression of it. Amyloid-β oligomers bind to the N-terminus of plasma membrane-bound cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) initiating a series of events leading to synaptic degeneration. Composition of bound amyloid-β oligomers, binding regions within PrP(C), binding affinities and modifiers of this interaction have been almost exclusively studied in cell culture or murine models of Alzheimer's disease and our knowledge on PrP(C)-amyloid-β interaction in patients with Alzheimer's disease is limited regarding occurrence, binding regions in PrP(C), and size of bound amyloid-β oligomers. Here we employed a PrP(C)-amyloid-β binding assay and size exclusion chromatography on neuropathologically characterized Alzheimer's disease and non-demented control brains (n = 15, seven female, eight male, average age: 79.2 years for Alzheimer's disease and n = 10, three female, seven male, average age: 66.4 years for controls) to investigate amyloid-β-PrP(C) interaction. PrP(C)-amyloid-β binding always occurred in Alzheimer's disease brains and was never detected in non-demented controls. Neither expression level of PrP(C) nor known genetic modifiers of Alzheimer's disease, such as the PrP(C) codon 129 polymorphism, influenced this interaction. In Alzheimer's disease brains, binding of amyloid-β to PrP(C) occurred via the PrP(C) N-terminus. For synthetic amyloid-β42, small oligomeric species showed prominent binding to PrP(C), whereas in Alzheimer's disease brains larger protein assemblies containing amyloid-β42 bound efficiently to PrP(C). These data confirm Alzheimer's disease specificity of binding of amyloid-β to PrP(C) via its N-terminus in a large cohort of Alzheimer's disease/control brains. Differences in sizes of separated protein fractions between synthetic and brain-derived amyloid-β binding to PrP(C) suggest that larger assemblies of amyloid-β or additional non-amyloid-β components may play a role in binding of amyloid-β42 to PrP(C) in Alzheimer's disease.

Embryonic development can be partially recapitulated in vitro by differentiating human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Thalidomide is a developmental toxicant in vivo and acts in a species-dependent manner. Besides its therapeutic value, thalidomide also serves as a prototypical model to study teratogenecity. Although many in vivo and in vitro platforms have demonstrated its toxicity, only a few test systems accurately reflect human physiology. We used global gene expression and proteomics profiling (two dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) coupled with Tandem Mass spectrometry) to demonstrate hESC differentiation and thalidomide embryotoxicity/teratogenecity with clinically relevant dose(s). Proteome analysis showed loss of POU5F1 regulatory proteins PKM2 and RBM14 and an over expression of proteins involved in neuronal development (such as PAK2, PAFAH1B2 and PAFAH1B3) after 14 days of differentiation. The genomic and proteomic expression pattern demonstrated differential expression of limb, heart and embryonic development related transcription factors and biological processes. Moreover, this study uncovered novel possible mechanisms, such as the inhibition of RANBP1, that participate in the nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of proteins and inhibition of glutathione transferases (GSTA1, GSTA2), that protect the cell from secondary oxidative stress. As a proof of principle, we demonstrated that a combination of transcriptomics and proteomics, along with consistent differentiation of hESCs, enabled the detection of canonical and novel teratogenic intracellular mechanisms of thalidomide.

Podocytes are the key cells affected in nephrotic glomerular kidney diseases, and they respond uniformly to injury with cytoskeletal rearrangement. In nephrotic diseases, such as membranous nephropathy and FSGS, persistent injury often leads to irreversible structural damage, whereas in minimal change disease, structural alterations are mostly transient. The factors leading to persistent podocyte injury are currently unknown. Proteolysis is an irreversible process and could trigger persistent podocyte injury through degradation of podocyte-specific proteins. We, therefore, analyzed the expression and functional consequence of the two most prominent proteolytic systems, the ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS) and the autophagosomal/lysosomal system, in persistent and transient podocyte injuries. We show that differential upregulation of both proteolytic systems occurs in persistent human and rodent podocyte injury. The expression of specific UPS proteins in podocytes differentiated children with minimal change disease from children with FSGS and correlated with poor clinical outcome. Degradation of the podocytespecific protein a-actinin-4 by the UPS depended on oxidative modification in membranous nephropathy. Notably, the UPS was overwhelmed in podocytes during experimental glomerular disease, resulting in abnormal protein accumulation and compensatory upregulation of the autophagosomal/lysosomal system. Accordingly, inhibition of both proteolytic systems enhanced proteinuria in persistent nephrotic disease. This study identifies altered proteolysis as a feature of persistent podocyte injury. In the future, specific UPS proteins may serve as new biomarkers or therapeutic targets in persistent nephrotic syndrome.

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The human serine protease high temperature requirement A1 (HTRA1) is highly expressed in the placental tissue, especially in the last trimester of gestation. This suggests that HTRA1 is involved in placental formation and function. With the aim of a better understanding of the role of HTRA1 in the placenta, candidate substrates were screened in a placenta protein extract using a gel-based mass spectrometric approach. Protease inhibitor alpha-1-antitrypsin, actin cytoplasmic 1, tropomyosin beta chain and ten further proteins were identified as candidate substrates of HTRA1. Among the identified candidate substrates, alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT) was considered to be of particular interest because of its important role as protease inhibitor. For investigation of alpha-1-antitrypsin as substrate of HTRA1 synthetic peptides covering parts of the sequence of alpha-1-antitrypsin were incubated with HTRA1. By mass spectrometry a specific cleavage site was identified after met-382 (AIPM382↓383SIPP) within the reactive centre loop of alpha-1-antitrypsin, resulting in a C-terminal peptide comprising 36 amino acids. Proteolytic removal of this peptide from alpha-1-antitrypsin results in a loss of its inhibitor function. Beside placental alpha-1-antitrypsin the circulating form in human plasma was also significantly degraded by HTRA1. Taken together, our data suggest a link between the candidate substrates alpha-1-antitrypsin and the function of HTRA1 in the placenta in the syncytiotrophoblast, the cell layer attending to maternal blood in the villous tree of the human placenta. Data deposition: Mass spectrometry (MS) data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD000473.