Michael Axenhus 1 , Bengt Winblad 1 , Lars O Tjernberg 1 , Sophia Schedin-Weiss 1 Show Affiliations »
Abstract
BACKGROUND: We have recently identified Huntingtin (Htt), the pathogenic protein in Huntington's disease, as a mediator of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in an amyloid precursor protein (APP) knock-in mouse model of AD. That finding prompted us to examine if Htt is accumulated in the brains of AD patients and in which cell type Htt is present in the AD brain. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether location and levels of Htt are affected in hippocampus and frontal cortex in AD. METHOD: Brains from AD patients (n=11) and controls (n=11) were stained for Htt using immunohistochemistry and signal intensity of Htt was quantified and localized in subregions and neurons. Confocal microscopy was used to characterize neuronal Htt localisation and its relationship with tau tangles and astrocytes. RESULTS: Htt levels were increased in neuronal cells in the granular layer of the dentate gyrus, in CA1 and CA3 in hippocampus and in layer III of the frontal cortex. Htt was found in the soma, perinuclear space, thin neurites and nucleus of pyramidal neurons. Htt was present in neurons containing tau tangles but did not colocalize with astrocytes. CONCLUSION: Htt accumulates in pyramidal neuron-rich areas including hippocampal subregions associated with memory and frontal cortex layer III. The accumulation of Htt in AD shows distinct cellular and morphological patterns and is not present in astrocytes. Clearly, further research is warranted to elucidate the role of Htt as a mediator of AD pathology and the potential use of Htt as a target in future therapeutic strategies. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.
BACKGROUND: We have recently identified Huntingtin (Htt ), the pathogenic protein in Huntington's disease , as a mediator of Alzheimer's disease (AD ) pathology in an amyloid precursor protein (APP) knock-in mouse model of AD . That finding prompted us to examine if Htt is accumulated in the brains of AD patients and in which cell type Htt is present in the AD brain. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether location and levels of Htt are affected in hippocampus and frontal cortex in AD . METHOD: Brains from AD patients (n=11) and controls (n=11) were stained for Htt using immunohistochemistry and signal intensity of Htt was quantified and localized in subregions and neurons. Confocal microscopy was used to characterize neuronal Htt localisation and its relationship with tau tangles and astrocytes. RESULTS: Htt levels were increased in neuronal cells in the granular layer of the dentate gyrus, in CA1 and CA3 in hippocampus and in layer III of the frontal cortex. Htt was found in the soma, perinuclear space, thin neurites and nucleus of pyramidal neurons. Htt was present in neurons containing tau tangles but did not colocalize with astrocytes. CONCLUSION: Htt accumulates in pyramidal neuron-rich areas including hippocampal subregions associated with memory and frontal cortex layer III. The accumulation of Htt in AD shows distinct cellular and morphological patterns and is not present in astrocytes. Clearly, further research is warranted to elucidate the role of Htt as a mediator of AD pathology and the potential use of Htt as a target in future therapeutic strategies. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.
Entities: Disease
Gene
Species
Keywords:
Alzheimer's disease; GFAP; confocal microscopy; hippocampus; human brain; huntingtin; immunohistochemistry; post-mortem.
Year: 2020
PMID： 33272184 DOI： 10.2174/1567205017666201203125622
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Curr Alzheimer Res ISSN： 1567-2050 Impact factor: 3.498