Velasco-Estevez, M;
Mampay, M;
Boutin, N;
Chaney, A;
Warn, P;
Sharp, A;
Burgess, E;
... Sheridan, GK; + view all
(2018)
Infection Augments Expression of Mechanosensing Piezo1 Channels in Amyloid Plaque-Reactive Astrocytes.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
, 10
, Article 332. 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00332.
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Abstract
A defining pathophysiological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the amyloid plaque; an extracellular deposit of aggregated fibrillar Aβ1-42 peptides. Amyloid plaques are hard, brittle structures scattered throughout the hippocampus and cerebral cortex and are thought to cause hyperphosphorylation of tau, neurofibrillary tangles, and progressive neurodegeneration. Reactive astrocytes and microglia envelop the exterior of amyloid plaques and infiltrate their inner core. Glia are highly mechanosensitive cells and can almost certainly sense the mismatch between the normally soft mechanical environment of the brain and very stiff amyloid plaques via mechanosensing ion channels. Piezo1, a non-selective cation channel, can translate extracellular mechanical forces to intracellular molecular signaling cascades through a process known as mechanotransduction. Here, we utilized an aging transgenic rat model of AD (TgF344-AD) to study expression of mechanosensing Piezo1 ion channels in amyloid plaque-reactive astrocytes. We found that Piezo1 is upregulated with age in the hippocampus and cortex of 18-month old wild-type rats. However, more striking increases in Piezo1 were measured in the hippocampus of TgF344-AD rats compared to age-matched wild-type controls. Interestingly, repeated urinary tract infections with Escherichia coli bacteria, a common comorbidity in elderly people with dementia, caused further elevations in Piezo1 channel expression in the hippocampus and cortex of TgF344-AD rats. Taken together, we report that aging and peripheral infection augment amyloid plaque-induced upregulation of mechanoresponsive ion channels, such as Piezo1, in astrocytes. Further research is required to investigate the role of astrocytic Piezo1 in the Alzheimer’s brain, whether modulating channel opening will protect or exacerbate the disease state, and most importantly, if Piezo1 could prove to be a novel drug target for age-related dementia.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Infection Augments Expression of Mechanosensing Piezo1 Channels in Amyloid Plaque-Reactive Astrocytes |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fnagi.2018.00332 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2018.00332 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2018 Velasco-Estevez, Mampay, Boutin, Chaney, Warn, Sharp, Burgess, Moeendarbary, Dev and Sheridan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid plaques, astrocytes, dentate gyrus, mechanosensitive ion channel, Piezo1, TgF344-AD rats, urinary tract infection |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10060956 |
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