Amyloid-beta induces disulfide bonding and aggregation of GAPDH in Alzheimer's disease.

GAPDH is a redox-sensitive glycolytic enzyme that also promotes apoptosis when translocated to the nucleus and associates with aggregate-prone proteins involved in neurodegenerative disorders. Recent evidence indicates that polymorphic variation within GAPDH genes is associated with an elevated risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). We previously demonstrated that GAPDH readily undergoes disulfide bonding following oxidant exposure, although the consequence of disulfide bonding on GAPDH activity or function is unknown. Here we show that increased GAPDH disulfide bonding is observed in detergent-insoluble extracts from AD patient and transgenic AD mouse brain tissue compared with age-matched controls. Exposure of primary rat cortical neurons to the pro-oxidant amyloid beta peptide promotes nuclear accumulation of a disulfide-linked form of GAPDH, which becomes detergent-insoluble. Disulfide bonding leads to a reduction in GAPDH enzymatic activity and correlates with the appearance of punctate aggregate-like GAPDH staining within the cytoplasm of both oxidant-treated HT22 cells and amyloid beta-treated primary cortical neurons. Our findings suggest that disulfide bonding of GAPDH and subsequent protein aggregate formation may have relevance to the pathophysiology of AD.