SUMMARY Abnormal NFκB activation has been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the signaling pathways governing NFκB regulation and function in the brain are poorly understood. We identify complement protein C3 as an astroglial target of NFκB, and show that C3 release acts through neuronal C3aR to disrupt dendritic morphology and network function. Exposure to Aβ activates astroglial NFκB and C3 release, consistent with the high levels of C3 expression in brain tissue from AD patients and APP transgenic mice, where C3aR antagonist treatment rescues cognitive impairment. Thus, dysregulation of neuron-glia interaction through NFκB/C3/C3aR signaling may contribute to synaptic dysfunction in AD and C3aR antagonists may be therapeutically beneficial.

One of the most common symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies is memory loss. The exact mechanisms leading to memory loss in tauopathies are not yet known; however, decreased translation due to ribosomal dysfunction has been implicated as a part of this process. Here we use a proteomics approach that incorporates subcellular fractionation and coimmunoprecipitation of tau from human AD and non-demented control brains to identify novel interactions between tau and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We show that ribosomes associate more closely with tau in AD than with tau in control brains, and that this abnormal association leads to a decrease in RNA translation. The aberrant tau-ribosome association also impaired synthesis of the synaptic protein PSD-95, suggesting that this phenomenon contributes to synaptic dysfunction. These findings provide novel information about tau-protein interactions in human brains, and they describe, for the first time, a dysfunctional consequence of tau-ribosome associations that directly alters protein synthesis.

Converging lines of evidence associate gluco-regulatory abnormalities and peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma function with increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we used the Tg2576 AD mouse model to test the hypothesis that cognitive improvement following one-month of PPAR gamma agonism with rosiglitazone (RTZ) correlates with peripheral gluco-regulatory status. We assessed cognition and peripheral gluco-regulatory status of Tg2576 mice following one-month treatment with RTZ initiated prior to, coincident with, or after, the onset of peripheral gluco-regulatory abnormalities (4, 8, and 12-months of age, respectively). Whereas 5-months-old (MO) and 13 MO Tg2576 did not gain cognitive improvement after one-month treatment with RTZ, 9 MO Tg2576 mice exhibited reversal of associative learning and memory deficits. Peripheral gluco-regulatory abnormalities were improved in 9 and 13 MO Tg2576 with RTZ treatment; RTZ treatment had no effect on the normal glucose status of 5 MO Tg2576 mice. These findings suggest that RTZ-mediated cognitive improvement does not correlate with peripheral gluco-regulatory abnormalities per se, but reflects the age-dependent mechanistic differences that underlie cognitive decline in this mouse model.

We previously reported that the peroxisome-proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonist rosiglitazone (RSG) improved hippocampus-dependent cognition in the Alzheimer's disease (AD) mouse model, Tg2576. RSG had no effect on wildtype littermate cognitive performance. Since ERK MAPK is required for many forms of learning and memory that are affected in AD, and since both PPARγ and ERK MAPK are key mediators of insulin signaling, the current study tested the hypothesis that RSG-mediated cognitive improvement induces a hippocampal PPARγ pattern of gene and protein expression that converges with the ERK MAPK signaling axis in Tg2576 AD mice. In the hippocampal PPARγ transcriptome, we found significant overlap between PPRE-containing PPARγ target genes and ERK-regulated, CRE-containing target genes. Within the Tg2576 dentate gyrus proteome, RSG induced proteins with structural, energy, biosynthesis and plasticity functions. Several of these proteins are known to be important for cognitive function and are also regulated by ERK MAPK. In addition, we found the RSG-mediated augmentation of PPARγ and ERK2 activity during Tg2576 cognitive enhancement was reversed when hippocampal PPARγ was pharmacologically antagonized, revealing a coordinate relationship between PPARγ transcriptional competency and pERK that is reciprocally affected in response to chronic activation, compared to acute inhibition, of PPARγ. We conclude that the hippocampal transcriptome and proteome induced by cognitive enhancement with RSG harnesses a dysregulated ERK MAPK signal transduction pathway to overcome AD-like cognitive deficits in Tg2576 mice. Thus, PPARγ represents a signaling system that is not crucial for normal cognition yet can intercede to restore neural networks compromised by AD.

Amyloid formation is the pathological hallmark of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). These diseases are marked by extracellular amyloid deposits of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) in the pancreas and amyloid β (Aβ) in the brain. Since IAPP may enter the brain and disparate amyloids can cross-seed each other to augment amyloid formation, we hypothesized that pancreatic derived IAPP may enter the brain to augment misfolding of Aβ in AD. The corollaries for validity of this hypothesis are that IAPP [1] enters the brain, [2] augments Aβ misfolding, [3] associates with Aβ plaques, and most importantly [4] plasma levels correlate with AD diagnosis. We demonstrate the first 3 corollaries that: (1) IAPP is present in the brain in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), (2) synthetic IAPP promoted oligomerization of Aβ in vitro, and (3) endogenous IAPP localized to Aβ oligomers and plaques. For the 4th corollary, we did not observe correlation of peripheral IAPP levels with AD pathology in either an African American cohort or AD transgenic mice. In the African American cohort, with increased risk for both T2D and AD, peripheral IAPP levels were not significantly different in samples with no disease, T2D, AD, or both T2D and AD. In the Tg2576 AD mouse model, IAPP plasma levels were not significantly elevated at an age where the mice exhibit the glucose intolerance of pre-diabetes. Based on this negative data, it appears unlikely that peripheral IAPP cross-seeds or "infects" Aβ pathology in AD brain. However, we provide novel and additional data which demonstrate that IAPP protein is present in astrocytes in murine brain and secreted from primary cultured astrocytes. This preliminary report suggests a potential and novel association between brain derived IAPP and AD, however whether astrocytic derived IAPP cross-seeds Aβ in the brain requires further research.