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The hypothesis that oxidative stress plays a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was tested by studying oxidative damage, acitvities of antioxidant enzymes and levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in several models. To this end, mouse models transgenic for mutant presenilin (PS1M146L) as well as mutant amyloid precursor protein (APP) and human post mortem brain tissue from sporadic AD patients and age-matched controls were studied. Aging leads to an upregulation of antioxidant enzyme activities of Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (Cu/Zn-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GR) in brains from C57BL/6J mice. Simultaneously, levels of lipid peroxidation products malondialdehyde MDA and 4-hydroxynonenal HNE were reduced. Additionally, pronounced gender effects were observed, as female mice display better protection against oxidative damage due to higher activity of GPx. Hence, antioxidant enzymes provide an important contribution to the protection against oxidative damage. In PS1M146L transgenic mice oxidative damage was only detectable in 19-22 months old mice, arguing for an additive effect of aging and the PS1 mutation. Both HNE levels in brain tissue as well as mitochondrial and cytosolic levels of ROS in splenic lymphocytes were increased in PS1M146L mice. Antioxidant defences were unaltered. In PDGF-APP and PDGF-APP/PS1 trangenic mice no changes in any of the parameters studied were observed in any age group. In contrast, Thy1-APP transgenic mice display oxidative damage as assessed by increased HNE levels. Reduced activity of Cu/Zn-SOD may explain this observation. Additionally, gender modified this effect, as female APP transgenic mice display higher b-secretase cleavage of APP and simultaneously increased HNE levels and reduced Cu/Zn-SOD activity earlier than male mice, i.e. from an age of 3 months and before the formation of Ab plaques. Reduced Cu/Zn-SOD activity was also found in another APP transgenic mouse model, in APP23 mice. In post mortem brain tissue from sporadic AD patients activities of Cu/Zn-SOD and GPx were however increased, and changes were most pronounced in temporal cortex. Simultaneously, levels of HNE but not MDA were elevated. Additionally, in vitro stimulation of lipid peroxidation led to increased MDA formation in samples from AD patients, indicating that increased activity of Cu/Zn-SOD and GPx are insufficient to protect against oxidative damage. Furthermore, the observed changes were subject to a gender effect, as samples from female AD patients showed increased activities of Cu/Zn-SOD and GPx as well as increased HNE levels, indicating that brain tissue from females is more sensitive towards oxidative damage. Levels of soluble Ab1-40 were positively correlated with with MDA levels and activities of Cu/Zn-SOD and GPx. Additionally, levels of lipid peroxidation products MDA and HNE are gene-dose-dependently modulated by the Apolipoprotein E4 allele, the most important genetic risk factor for AD known so far. While MDA levels were negatively correlated with MMSE scores, a measure for cognitive function, HNE levels were highest in AD patients with moderate cognitive impairment. Hence, increased HNE levels may play an important role in neurodegenerative events at an early disease stage. In summary, oxidative damage, as assessed by increased HNE levels, could be detected in sporadic AD patients and in different transgenic mouse models. The results of this thesis therefore support the further research of pharmacological targets aiming at augmentation of antioxidant defences for therapy or prophylaxis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Substanzen, die den intrazellulären pH-Wert beeinflussen, verändern den proteolytischen Abbau des Amyloidvorläuferproteins (APP) teilweise so, dass weniger Beta-Amyloid (A-Beta) entsteht. A-Beta ist nach heutigen Vorstellungen als Hauptbestandteil der senilen Plaques kausal in die Pathogenese der Alzheimer´schen Erkrankung involviert. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war zu überprüfen, ob Hyperforin, ein wichtiger Inhaltsstoff des Johanniskrauts, in der Lage ist, in die APP-Prozessierung einzugreifen und eine Verschiebung der proteolytischen Spaltung von APP, die das Entstehen der senilen Plaques möglicherweise verringert, auszulösen, da bekannt war, dass Hyperforin den intrazellulären pH-Wert in Thrombozyten verändert. Für die Arbeit wurden untransfizierte und stabil transfizierte PC12 und HEK Zellen, zwei in der Alzheimer-Forschung geläufige Zell-Modelle, verwendet. Die Zellen waren entweder mit menschlichem wild-typ APP (APPwt) oder mit APP, das die schwedische Mutation beinhaltet (APPsw), eine Alzheimer-relevante Mutation, die einen frühzeitigen Erkrankungsbeginn zur Folge hat, stabil transfiziert. Um die Relevanz möglicher Hyperforin-Effekte abschätzen zu können, wurden PMA (Phorbolester, bekannter Alpha-Sekretase-Aktivator), Bafilomycin A1 (V-ATPase-Hemmer) und FCCP (Protonophor), für die eine Beeinflussung der APP-Prozessierung bekannt ist, zum Vergleich mit untersucht. Als erstes wurden an den verwendeten Zell-Linien die intrazellulären pH-Wert-Veränderungen durch Hyperforin, FCCP und Bafilomycin A1 gemessen und miteinander verglichen, wobei Hyperforin und FCCP den intrazellulären pH-Wert in gleichen Konzentrationsbereichen ähnlich schnell und stark reduzierten, während Bafilomycin A1 den intrazellulären pH-Wert kaum beeinflusste. Es konnte kein Einfluss von Transfektion und Mutation auf die Empfindlichkeit der intrazellulären pH-Wert-Verschiebung gefunden werden. Mögliche zelltoxische Eigenschaften von Hyperforin, PMA, FCCP und Bafilomycin A1 wurden überprüft, wobei auch ein Einfluss von Hyperforin und FCCP auf die Mitochondrien getestet wurde. Die Quantifizierung möglicher zytotoxischer Eigenschaften der Substanzen mittels MTT- und LDH-Tests ergaben, dass alle Ergebnisse bis zu einer Inkubationsdauer von 2 Stunden nicht auf eine Bioaktivitätsstörungen der Zellen zurückzuführen sind. Auch wenn Hyperforin, ähnlich wie FCCP, die Mitochondrien depolarisierte. Als nächstes wurde der mögliche Einfluss von Hyperforin auf die proteolytische Prozessierung von APP untersucht. Von Interesse war, ob ein Zusammenhang zwischen einer intrazellulären pH-Wert-Beeinflussung und einer veränderten proteolytischen Spaltung von APP durch Hyperforin besteht. Hyperforin zeigte einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die APP-Prozessierung, es erhöhte konzentrationsabhängig die Alpha-Sekretase-Spaltung, die Spaltung, die die Bildung des Alzheimer-relevanten A-Beta-Peptides verhindert. Da kein sAPP-Beta-spezifischer AK zur Verfügung stand, kann zu diesem Zeitpunkt nicht ausgeschlossen werden, dass auch die Beta-Sekretase-Spaltung durch Hyperforin beeinflusst wurde. Da die in dieser Arbeit verwendeten PC12 Zell-Linien nicht die abnorme hohe APP-Überproduktion wie andere Zell-Linien zeigen, war die Menge des in der kurzen Behandlungsdauer von 2-4 Stunden gebildeten A-Beta zu gering, um im ELISA erfasst zu werden. Die Tatsache, dass A-Beta unter den gegebenen Versuchsbedingungen durch ELISA nicht nachweisbar war, lässt eine stark erhöhte A-Beta-Produktion durch Hyperforin jedoch unwahrscheinlich erscheinen. Dadurch ist zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt auch der Einfluss der sw-Mutation auf die Hyperforin-Effekte noch unklar. Die Tatsache, dass Alpha- und Beta-Sekretasen in verschiedenen Kompartimenten aktiv sind und über verschiedenen Mechanismen aktiviert werden (vgl. Abschnitte 1.2.1.1 und 1.2.1.2), dass die Alpha-Sekretase-Spaltung bereits 90% der APP-Spaltung ausmacht und diese durch Hyperforin noch gesteigert wurde, wobei gleichzeitig intrazelluläres APP erniedrigt wurde (so dass die vermehrte Spaltung nicht auf ein erhöhtes Substratangebot zurückgeführt werden kann), lässt aber eine gleichzeitige Aktivierung von Alpha- und Beta-Sekretase unwahrscheinlich erscheinen. Vergleichende Untersuchungen mit FCCP und Bafilomycin A1 ergaben, dass für die Verschiebung der proteolytischen Prozessierung von APP weder die intrazelluläre pH-Wert-Erniedrigung, noch ein möglicher Einfluss auf Endosomen und Lysosomen, als Hauptursache in Frage kommt. Ein Vergleich mit PMA, das die Alpha-Sekretase durch eine direkte PKC-Aktivierung stimuliert, zeigte, dass Hyperforin auch keinen Phorbolester-ähnlichen Wirkungsmechanismus haben kann. Allerdings sieht es nach einigen Vorversuchen (SK&F, BAPTA/AM, Staurosporin, PKC-down Regulation Versuchen) so aus, als ob durch Hyperforin erhöhtes intrazelluläres Kalzium und/oder aktivierte PKC-Isoenzyme bei der Spaltung des intrazellulären APP und damit bei der Erhöhung der löslichen Spaltprodukte involviert ist/sind. Kalzium kann auch unabhängig von PKC die Alpha-Sekretase aktivieren (Buxbaum et al., 1994). Es aktiviert ERKs (Luo et al., 1997; Rosen et al., 1994; Rusanesco et al., 1995; Zhu et al., 2002), wobei aktivierte ERKs in der Lage sind, die Alpha-Sekretase zu stimulieren (Mills et al., 1997). Auch FCCP erhöht intrazelluläres Kalzium (Friel and Tsien, 1994; Luo et al., 1997; Park et al., 2002; Jensen and Rehder, 1991), wodurch es in PC12 Zellen zu einer Aktivierung von ERK1 und 2 kommen kann (Luo et al., 1997). Es muss aber bedacht werden, dass Hyperforin und FCCP unterschiedlich starke Effekte auf intrazelluläres APP und sAPP zeigten, so dass auch Mechanismen in Betracht gezogen werden müssen, bei denen Hyperforin anders als FCCP agiert. Es kann nicht ausgeschlossen werden, dass die Beeinflussung der Membranfluidität durch Hyperforin (Eckert and Müller, 2001) einen Einfluss auf die APP-Spaltung hat, da Veränderungen des Membrancholesterol-Gehaltes den Gehalt an sAPP und ABeta ändern, z.B. erniedrigt ein erhöhter Membran-Cholesterol-Gehalt sAPPAlpha (Bodovitz und Klein 1996, Racchi et al., 1998) und erhöht ABeta (Gouras et al., 2000). Eine Behandlung von Zellen, die zu einer Verringerung von intrazellulärem Cholesterol führt (Statine bzw. Cyclodextrin), reduziert die Spaltung von APP zu ABeta und erhöht sAPPAlpha (Fassbender et al., 2001; Kojro et al., 2001; Refolo et al., 2001).
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder world wide, causing presenile dementia and death of millions of people. During AD damage and massive loss of brain cells occur. Alzheimer’s disease is genetically heterogeneous and may therefore represent a common phenotype that results from various genetic and environmental influences and risk factors. In approximately 10% of patients, changes of the genetic information were detected (gene mutations). In these cases, Alzheimer’s disease is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait (familial Alzheimer’s disease, FAD). In rare cases of familial Alzheimer’s disease (about 1-3%), mutations have been detected in genes on chromosomes 14 and 1 (encoding for Presenilin 1 and 2, respectively), and on chromosome 21 encoding for the amyloid precursor protein (APP), which is responsible for the release of the cell-damaging protein amyloid-beta (ß-amyloid, Aß). Familial forms of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease are rare; however, their importance extends far beyond their frequency, because they allow to identify some of the critical pathogenetic pathways of the disease. All familial Alzheimer mutations share a common feature: they lead to an enhanced production of the Aß, which is the major constituent of senile plaques in brains of AD patients. New data indicates that Aß promotes neuronal degeneration. Therefore, one aim of these thesis was to elucidate the neurotoxic biochemical pathways induced by Aß, investigating the effect of the FAD Swedish APP double mutation (APPsw) on oxidative stress-induced cell death mechanisms. This mutation results in a three- to sixfold increased Aß production compared to wild-type APP (APPwt). As cell models, the neuronal PC12 (rat pheochromocytoma) and the HEK (human embryonic kidney 293) cell lines were used, which have been transfected with human wiltyp APP or human APP containing the Swedish double mutation. The used cell models offer two important advantages. First, compared to experiments using high concentrations of Aß at micromolar levels applied extracellularly to cells, PC12 APPsw cells secret low Aß levels similar to the situation in FAD brains. Thus, this cell model represents a very suitable approach to elucidate the AD-specific cell death pathways mimicking physiological conditions. Second, these two cell lines (PC12 and HEK APPwt and APPsw) with different production levels of Aß may additionally allow to study dose-dependent effects of Aß. The here obtained results provide evidence for the enhanced cell vulnerability caused by the Swedish APP mutation and elucidate the cell death mechanism probably initiated by intracellulary produced Aß. Here it seems likely that increased production of Aß at physiological levels primes APPsw PC12 cells to undergo cell death only after additional stress, while chronic high levels in HEK cells already lead to enhanced basal apoptotic levels. Crucial effects of the Swedish APP mutation include the impairments of cellular energy metabolism affecting mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels as well as the additional activation of caspase 2, caspase 8 and JNK in response to oxidative stress. Thereby ,the following model can be proposed: PC12 cells harboring the Swedish APP mutation have a reduced energy metabolism compared to APPwt or control cells. However, this effect does not leads to enhanced basal apoptotic levels of cultured cells. An exposure of PC12 cells to oxidative stress leads to mitochondrial dysfunction, e.g., decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and depletion in ATP. The consequence is the activation of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway releasing cytochrome c and Smac resulting in the activation of caspase 9. This effect is amplified by the overexpression of APP, since both APPsw and APPwt PC12 cells show enhanced cytochrome c and Smac release as well as enhanced caspase 9 activity as vector transfected control. In APPsw PC12 cells a parallel pathway is additionally emphased. Due to reduced ATP levels or enhanced Aß production JNK is activated. Furthermore, the extrinsic apoptotic pathway is enhanced, since caspase 8 and caspase 2 activation was clearly enhanced by the Swedish APP mutation. Both pathways may then converge by activating the effector enzyme, caspase 3, and the execution of cell death. In addition, caspase independent effects also needs to be considered. One possibility could be the implication of AIF since AIF expression was found to be induced by the Swedish APP mutation. In APPsw HEK cells high chronic Aß levels leads to enhanced apoptotic levels, reduce mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP levels even under basal conditions. Summarizing, a hypothetical sequence of events is proposed linking FAD, Aß production, JNK-activation, mitochondrial dysfunction with caspase pathway and neuronal loss for our cell model. The brain has a high metabolic rate and is exposured to gradually rising levels of oxidative stress during life. In Swedish FAD patients the levels of oxidative stress are increased in the temporal inferior cortex. This study using a cell model mimicking the in vivo situation in AD brains indicates that probably both, increased Aß production and the gradual rise of oxidative stress throughout life converge at a final common pathway of an increased vulnerability of neurons to apoptotic cell death from FAD patients. Presenilin (PS) 1 is an aspartyl protease, involved in the gamma-secretase mediated proteolysis of Amyloid-ß-protein (Aß), the major constituent of senile plaques in brains of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Recent studies have suggested an additional role for presenilin proteins in apoptotic cell death observed in AD. Since PS 1 is proteolytic cleaved by caspase 3, it has been prosposed that the resulting C-terminal fragment of PS1 (PSCas) could play a role in signal transduction during apoptosis. Moreover, it was shown that mutant presenilins causing early-onset of familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) may render cells vulnerable to apoptosis. The mechanism by which PS1 regulates apoptotic cell death is yet not understood. Therefore one aim of our present study was to clarify the involvement of PS1 in the proteolytic cascade of apoptosis and if the cleavage of PS1 by caspase 3 has an regulatory function. Here it is demonstrated that both, PS1 and PS1Cas lead to a reduced vulnerability of PC12 and Jurkat cells to different apoptotic stimuli. However a mutation at the caspase 3 recognition site (D345A/ PSmut), which inhibits cleavage of PS1 by caspase 3, show no differences in the effect of PS1 or PSCas towards apoptotic stimuli. This suggest that proteolysis of PS1 by caspase 3 is not a determinant, but only a secondary effect during apoptosis. Since several FAD mutation distributed through the whole PS1 gene lead to enhanced apoptosis, an abolishment of the antiapoptotic effect of PS1 might contribute to the massive neurodegeneration in early age of FAD patients. Here, the regulate properties of PS1 in apoptosis may not be through an caspase 3 dependent cleavage and generation of PSCas, but rather through interaction of PS1 with other proteins involved in apoptosis.