Hyperphosphorylated tau is the major protein subunit of neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies. It is not understood, however, why the neurofibrillary tangle-containing neurons seen in the AD brains do not die of apoptosis but rather degeneration even though they are constantly awash in a proapoptotic environment. Here, we show that cells overexpressing tau exhibit marked resistance to apoptosis induced by various apoptotic stimuli, which also causes correlated tau hyperphosphorylation and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) activation. GSK-3 overexpression did not potentiate apoptotic stimulus-induced cell apoptosis in the presence of high levels of tau. The resistance of neuronal cells bearing hyperphosphorylated tau to apoptosis was also evident by the inverse staining pattern of PHF-1-positive tau and activated caspase-3 or fragmented nuclei in cells and the brains of rats or tau-transgenic mice. Tau hyperphosphorylation was accompanied by decreases in ␤-catenin phosphorylation and increases in nuclear translocation of ␤-catenin. Reduced levels of ␤-catenin antagonized the antiapoptotic effect of tau, whereas overexpressing ␤-catenin conferred resistance to apoptosis. These results reveal an antiapoptotic function of tau hyperphosphorylation, which likely inhibits competitively phosphorylation of ␤-catenin by GSK-3␤ and hence facilitates the function of ␤-catenin. Our findings suggest that tau phosphorylation may lead the neurons to escape from an acute apoptotic death, implying the essence of neurodegeneration seen in the AD brains and related tauopathies.Alzheimer's disease ͉ tau hyperphosphorylation ͉ glycogen synthase kinase-3 C hronic neurodegeneration characterized by accumulation of hyperphosphorylated tau and formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) is a hallmark lesion in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies (1-4). Although the mechanism underlying neurodegeneration remains elusive, the idea that neurons undergo apoptosis in the course of neurodegeneration is supported by studies showing that AD-related toxic stimuli, such as ␤-amyloid, cause cell death as manifested by up-regulation of apoptotic markers (5, 6). However, apoptosis accounts for only a minor proportion of neurons lost in AD brains (7); most NFT-bearing neurons undergo chronic degeneration (8-13) rather than apoptosis, even though they are constantly exposed to apoptotic stimuli, suggesting that mechanism(s) exist enabling neurons to escape apoptosis.Studies on postmortem AD brains have demonstrated that abnormally hyperphosphorylated tau is the major protein subunit of NFT (1-4), which suggests that hyperphosphorylation of tau may play a role in leading the neuronal cells to desert apoptosis. Tau is a microtubule-associated protein. The major function of tau is to promote microtubule assembly and maintain the stability of the microtubules. The roles of tau hyperphosphorylation and accumulation in the development of neurofibrillary degeneration seen in the AD brains (1-4) and related t...

Summary EPAC proteins are the guanine nucleotide exchange factors that act as the intracellular receptors for cyclic AMP. Two variants of EPAC genes including EPAC1 and EPAC2 are cloned and are widely expressed throughout the brain. But, their functions in the brain remain unknown. Here, we genetically delete EPAC1 (EPAC1-/-), or EPAC2 (EPAC2-/-) or both EPAC1 and EPAC2 genes (EPAC-/-) in the forebrain of mice. We show that EPAC null mutation impairs long-term potentiation (LTP) and that this impairment is paralleled with the severe deficits in spatial learning and social interactions and is mediated in a direct manner by miR-124 transcription and Zif268 translation. Knockdown of miR-124 restores Zif268 and hence reverses all aspects of the EPAC-/- phenotypes, whereas expression of miR-124 or knockdown of Zif268 reproduces the effects of EPAC null mutation. Thus, EPAC proteins control miR-124 transcription in the brain for processing spatial learning and social interactions.

Emotion influences various cognitive processes, including learning and memory. The amygdala is specialized for input and processing of emotion, while the hippocampus is essential for declarative or episodic memory. During emotional reactions, these two brain regions interact to translate the emotion into particular outcomes. Here, we briefly introduce the anatomy and functions of amygdala and hippocampus, and then present behavioral, electrophysiological, optogenetic and biochemical evidence from recent studies to illustrate how amygdala and hippocampus work synergistically to form long-term memory. With recent technological advances, the causal investigations of specific neural circuit between amygdala and hippocampus will help us understand the brain mechanisms of emotion-regulated memories and improve clinical treatment of emotion-associated memory disorders in patients.

Intracellular accumulation of wild-type tau is a hallmark of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the molecular mechanisms underlying tau-induced synapse impairment and memory deficit are poorly understood. Here we found that overexpression of human wild-type full-length tau (termed hTau) induced memory deficits with impairments of synaptic plasticity. Both in vivo and in vitro data demonstrated that hTau accumulation caused remarkable dephosphorylation of cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) in the nuclear fraction. Simultaneously, the calcium-dependent protein phosphatase calcineurin (CaN) was up-regulated, whereas the calcium/ calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CaMKIV) was suppressed. Further studies revealed that CaN activation could dephosphorylate CREB and CaMKIV, and the effect of CaN on CREB dephosphorylation was independent of CaMKIV inhibition. Finally, inhibition of CaN attenuated the hTau-induced CREB dephosphorylation with improved synapse and memory functions. Together, these data indicate that the hTau accumulation impairs synapse and memory by CaN-mediated suppression of nuclear CaMKIV/CREB signaling. Our findings not only reveal new mechanisms underlying the hTau-induced synaptic toxicity, but also provide potential targets for rescuing tauopathies.is the most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized clinically by progressive memory loss (1). The extracellular precipitation of β-amyloid (Aβ) (2), intracellular tau accumulation forming neurofibrillary tangles (3), and profound synapse degeneration are hallmark pathologies in AD brains (4, 5). Studies show that formation of neurofibrillary tangles is positively correlated with the degree of dementia symptoms (6), and the Aβ toxicity needs the presence of tau (7). These data suggest a crucial role of tau accumulation in neurodegeneration and the cognitive impairments in patients with AD. As a cytoskeleton protein, how tau accumulation causes memory deficits is not fully understood.Synapse is the fundamental unit for learning and memory. Dysfunction of synaptic connections is recognized as the cause of memory impairments, and significant synapse loss has been observed in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and in earlier stages of AD (8). In AD mouse models, synapse impairments appear before the onset of memory deficit (9), whereas amelioration of synapse loss by administration of estradiol preserves cognitive functions (10). Earlier investigations into AD-related synaptic damages have been mainly focused on the toxic effects of Aβ (11). Recently, an emerging role of tau in synaptic impairment has been shown (12). For instance, overexpression of human mutant tau in mice induces synaptic degeneration even in the absence of tangles (13, 14) and reducing endogenous tau in mouse models carrying the mutated amyloid precursor protein (APP) prevents the cognitive deficits and synaptic loss (15).Among many structural or functional proteins involved in synapse development and memory formation, cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) is...

Abstract:Mood disorders are more frequent in women than men, however, the majority of research has focused on male rodents as animal models. We used a variety of common behavioral tests to look for differences in anxiety-like and social behaviors between and within C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ mice. Our results show that female C57BL/6J mice exhibited lower levels of anxiety-like behavior and higher levels of activity than female BALB/cJ during the open field and elevated plus maze tests. Principal component analysis generated more factors in the behavioral variables of males than females. In the open field, a sex difference was also found and factor 1 emerged as anxiety in males, and motor activity in females. While C57BL/6J mice were found to have higher levels of social exploration and social contacts, differences were found between the sexes (females were more social) in both strains for this measure and also for anxiety-like behaviors. When interacting with animals of the same sex, levels of sniffing body and huddling in both male and female C57BL/6J mice were higher than those in male and female BALB/cJ mice. However, in the between-sex interactions, male C57BL/6J mice sniffed the stimulus mouse less, and female C57BL/6J mice sniffed the stimulus more compared to BALB/cJ mice. This study provides important behavioral phenotypes and confirms the multidimensional behavioral structure of two widely used mice strains.