Abstract The transcriptional repressor DREAM (downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator) is a multifunctional neuronal calcium sensor (NCS) that controls Ca2+ and protein homeostasis through gene regulation and protein-protein interactions. Downregulation of DREAM is part of an endogenous neuroprotective mechanism that improves ATF6 (activating transcription factor 6) processing, neuronal survival in the striatum, and motor coordination in R6/2 mice, a model of Huntington's disease (HD). Whether modulation of DREAM activity can also ameliorate cognition deficits in HD mice has not been studied. Moreover, it is not known whether DREAM downregulation in HD is unique, or also occurs for other NCS family members. Using the novel object recognition test, we show that chronic administration of the DREAM-binding molecule repaglinide, or induced DREAM haplodeficiency delays onset of cognitive impairment in R6/1 mice, another HD model. The mechanism involves a notable rise in the levels of transcriptionally active ATF6 protein in the hippocampus after repaglinide administration. In addition, we show that reduction in DREAM protein in the hippocampus of HD patients was not accompanied by downregulation of other NCS family members. Our results indicate that DREAM inhibition markedly improves ATF6 processing in the hippocampus and that it might contribute to a delay in memory decline in HD mice. The mechanism of neuroprotection through DREAM silencing in HD does not apply to other NCS family members. ; This work was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III/CIBERNED (to JRN, BM and AR), the Madrid regional government/Neurodegmodels (to JRN), and SAF2014–53412-R and SAF2017–89554-R (AEI-FEDER, EU) (to JRN).
Deregulated protein and Ca2+ homeostasis underlie synaptic dysfunction and neurodegeneration in Huntington disease (HD); however, the factors that disrupt homeostasis are not fully understood. Here, we determined that expression of downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator (DREAM), a multifunctional Ca2+-binding protein, is reduced in murine in vivo and in vitro HD models and in HD patients. DREAM downregulation was observed early after birth and was associated with endogenous neuroprotection. In the R6/2 mouse HD model, induced DREAM haplodeficiency or blockade of DREAM activity by chronic administration of the drug repaglinide delayed onset of motor dysfunction, reduced striatal atrophy, and prolonged life span. DREAM-related neuroprotection was linked to an interaction between DREAM and the unfolded protein response (UPR) sensor activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6). Repaglinide blocked this interaction and enhanced ATF6 processing and nuclear accumulation of transcriptionally active ATF6, improving prosurvival UPR function in striatal neurons. Together, our results identify a role for DREAM silencing in the activation of ATF6 signaling, which promotes early neuroprotection in HD. ; A. De la Cruz holds a RECAVA contract, A. Prieto and P. Cercós hold FPI fellowships, and T. González holds a Ramón y Cajal contract. J. Casado-Vela holds a JAE-DOC (CSIC) from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO), cofunded by the European Social Fund. This work was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III/CIBERNED (to J.R. Naranjo, B. Mellström, and A. Rábano), FISS-RIC RD12/0042/0019 (to C. Valenzuela), Madrid regional government/Neurodegmodels (to J.R. Naranjo), MINECO grants SAF2010-21784 and SAF2014-53412-R (to J.R. Naranjo), SAF2012-32209 (to M. Gutierrez-Rodriguez), SAF2010-14916 and SAF2013-45800-R (to C. Valenzuela), and a grant from the Swedish Research Council (J.Y. Li). ; Peer Reviewed
Deregulated protein and Ca2+ homeostasis underlie synaptic dysfunction and neurodegeneration in Huntington disease (HD); however, the factors that disrupt homeostasis are not fully understood. Here, we determined that expression of downstream regulatory element antagonist modulator (DREAM), a multifunctional Ca2+-binding protein, is reduced in murine in vivo and in vitro HD models and in HD patients. DREAM downregulation was observed early after birth and was associated with endogenous neuroprotection. In the R6/2 mouse HD model, induced DREAM haplodeficiency or blockade of DREAM activity by chronic administration of the drug repaglinide delayed onset of motor dysfunction, reduced striatal atrophy, and prolonged life span. DREAM-related neuroprotection was linked to an interaction between DREAM and the unfolded protein response (UPR) sensor activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6). Repaglinide blocked this interaction and enhanced ATF6 processing and nuclear accumulation of transcriptionally active ATF6, improving prosurvival UPR function in striatal neurons. Together, our results identify a role for DREAM silencing in the activation of ATF6 signaling, which promotes early neuroprotection in HD ; This work was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III/CIBERNED (to J.R. Naranjo, B. Mellström, and A. Rábano), FISS-RIC RD12/0042/0019 (to C. Valenzuela), Madrid regional government/Neurodegmodels (to J.R. Naranjo), MINECO grants SAF2010-21784 and SAF2014-53412-R (to J.R. Naranjo), SAF2012-32209 (to M. Gutierrez-Rodriguez), SAF2010-14916 and SAF2013-45800-R (to C. Valenzuela), and a grant from the Swedish Research Council (J.Y. Li)
The human Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain accumulates angiogenic markers but paradoxically, the cerebral microvasculature is reduced around Aß plaques. Here we demonstrate that angiogenesis is started near Aß plaques in both AD mouse models and human AD samples. However, endothelial cells express the molecular signature of non-productive angiogenesis (NPA) and accumulate, around Aß plaques, a tip cell marker and IB4 reactive vascular anomalies with reduced NOTCH activity. Notably, NPA induction by endothelial loss of presenilin, whose mutations cause familial AD and which activity has been shown to decrease with age, produced a similar vascular phenotype in the absence of Aß pathology. We also show that Aß plaque-associated NPA locally disassembles blood vessels, leaving behind vascular scars, and that microglial phagocytosis contributes to the local loss of endothelial cells. These results define the role of NPA and microglia in local blood vessel disassembly and highlight the vascular component of presenilin loss of function in AD. ; A.E.R.-N. was the recipient of a JdlC-F fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (MINEICO) (FJCI-2015-23708), M.I.A.-V., N.L.-U., and C.O.-d.S.L. were the recipient of an FPU fellowship from Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport (respectively, FPU15/02898, FPU14-02115, and AP2010‐1598), and R.M.-D. was the recipient of a "Sara Borrell" fellowship from ISCIII (CD09/0007). Work was supported by grants to A.P. by the Spanish MINEICO, ISCIII, and FEDER (SAF2012‐33816, SAF2015‐64111‐R, RTI2018-096629-B-100, SAF2017-90794-REDT, and PIE13/0004), by the regional Government of Andalusia ("Proyectos de Excelencia", P12‐CTS‐2138 and P12‐CTS‐2232) co-funded by CEC and FEDER funds, and by the "Ayuda de Biomedicina 2018", Fundación Domingo Martínez; J.Vitorica: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCiii) of Spain, co-financed by FEDER funds from European Union (PI18/01556) by La Marató-TV3 Foundation grant 20141431; by CIBERNED (CB06/05/0094); and by Junta de Andalucia Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento through grant US-1262734; A.G.: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCiii) of Spain, co-financed by FEDER funds from European Union, through grant PI18/01557; and by Junta de Andalucia Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento through grants UMA18-FEDERJA-211 and P18-RT-2233 co-financed by Programa Operativo FEDER 2014-2020. ; Peer reviewed
Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series. ; The authors would like to thank patients and controls who participated in this project. The Genome Research @ Fundació ACE project (GR@ACE) is supported by Fundación bancaria "La Caixa", Grifols SA, Fundació ACE, and ISCIII (Ministry of Health, Spain). They also want to thank the private sponsors who support the basic and clinical projects of our institution (Piramal AG, Laboratorios Echevarne, Araclon Biotech S.A., and Fundació ACE). They are indebted to the Trinitat Port‐Carbó legacy and her family for their support of Fundació ACE research programs. Fundació ACE is a participating center in the Dementia Genetics Spanish Consortium (DEGESCO). A.R. and M.B. receive support from the European Union/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint undertaking ADAPTED and MOPEAD projects (grant numbers 115975 and 115985, respectively). M.B. and A.R. are also supported by national grants PI13/02434, PI16/01861, and PI17/01474. Acción Estratégica en Salud is integrated into the Spanish National R + D + I Plan and funded by ISCIII (Instituto de Salud Carlos III)‐Subdirección General de Evaluación and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER‐ "Una manera de Hacer Europa"). L.M.R. is supported by Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (grant PI‐0001/2017). Control samples and data from patients included in this study were provided in part by the National DNA Bank Carlos III (www.bancoadn.org, University of Salamanca, Spain) and Hospital Universitario Virgen de Valme (Sevilla, Spain); they were processed after standard operating procedures with the appropriate approval of the Ethical and Scientific Committee. The present work was performed as part of the Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biomedicine doctoral program of S. Moreno‐Grau at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain). Data collection and sharing for this project was partially funded by the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) (National Institutes of Health grant U01 AG024904) and DOD ADNI (Department of Defense award number W81XWH‐12–2–0012). The ADNI is funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, as well as through generous contributions from the following: AbbVie; the Alzheimer's Association; the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation; Araclon Biotech; BioClinica, Inc.; Biogen; Bristol‐Myers Squibb Company; CereSpir, Inc.; Cogstate; Eisai Inc.; Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Eli Lilly and Company; EuroImmun; F. Hoffmann‐La Roche Ltd and its affiliated company Genentech, Inc.; Fujirebio; GE Healthcare; IXICO Ltd.; Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC.; Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development LLC.; Lumosity; Lundbeck; Merck & Co., Inc.; Meso Scale Diagnostics, LLC.; NeuroRx Research; Neurotrack Technologies; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Pfizer Inc.; Piramal Imaging; Servier; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company; and Transition Therapeutics. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research provides funds to support ADNI clinical sites in Canada. Private sector contributions are facilitated by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (www.fnih.org). The grantee organization is the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, and the study was coordinated by the Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute at the University of Southern California. ADNI data are disseminated by the Laboratory for NeuroImaging at the University of Southern California. The AddNeuroMed data are from a public‐private partnership supported by EFPIA companies and SMEs as part of InnoMed (Innovative Medicines in Europe), an integrated project funded by the European Union of the Sixth Framework program priority FP6–2004‐LIFESCIHEALTH‐5. Clinical leads responsible for data collection are Iwona Kłoszewska (Lodz), Simon Lovestone (London), Patrizia Mecocci (Perugia), Hilkka Soininen (Kuopio), Magda Tsolaki (Thessaloniki), and Bruno Vellas (Toulouse). Imaging leads are Andy Simmons (London), Lars‐Olad Wahlund (Stockholm), and Christian Spenger (Zurich). Bioinformatics leads are Richard Dobson (London) and Stephen Newhouse (London). Funding support for the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) was provided through the NIA Division of Neuroscience (U01‐AG032984). The genotypic and associated phenotypic data used in the study "Multi‐Site Collaborative Study for Genotype‐Phenotype Associations in Alzheimer's Disease (GenADA)" were provided by GlaxoSmithKline, R&D Limited. The data sets used for the analyses described in this manuscript were obtained from dbGaP at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gap through dbGaP accession number phs000219. The Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Genetic Studies, led by Dr. Nilüfer Ertekin‐Taner and Dr. Steven G. Younkin at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, used samples from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and the Mayo Clinic Brain Bank. Data c ; Sí