Delta-secretase cleavage of Tau mediates its pathology and propagation in Alzheimer's disease

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Seong Kang, Emory University; Eun Hee Ahn, Emory University; Keqiang Ye, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-08-28
• Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2020
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s12276-020-00494-7
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: EXPERIMENTAL AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 8
• Start Page: 1275
• End Page: 1287
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from NIH (RF1 AG051538; RO1 AG065517) to K.Y.
• Keywords: NEUROFIBRILLARY DEGENERATION; Science & Technology; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; AMYLOID-BETA-PROTEIN; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Research & Experimental Medicine; CELL-DEATH; NOREPINEPHRINE TRANSMITTER METABOLITE; LOCUS-COERULEUS; ALPHA-SYNUCLEIN; Medicine, Research & Experimental; MONOAMINE-OXIDASE; PARKINSONS-DISEASE; OXIDATIVE STRESS; APOLIPOPROTEIN-E
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Pathology; Biology, Neuroscience; Biology, Cell

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with age as a major risk factor. AD is the most common dementia with abnormal structures, including extracellular senile plaques and intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles, as key neuropathologic hallmarks. The early feature of AD pathology is degeneration of the locus coeruleus (LC), which is the main source of norepinephrine (NE) supplying various cortical and subcortical areas that are affected in AD. The spread of Tau deposits is first initiated in the LC and is transported in a stepwise manner from the entorhinal cortex to the hippocampus and then to associative regions of the neocortex as the disease progresses. Most recently, we reported that the NE metabolite DOPEGAL activates delta-secretase (AEP, asparagine endopeptidase) and triggers pathological Tau aggregation in the LC, providing molecular insight into why LC neurons are selectively vulnerable to developing early Tau pathology and degenerating later in the disease and how δ-secretase mediates the spread of Tau pathology to the rest of the brain. This review summarizes our current understanding of the crucial role of δ-secretase in driving and spreading AD pathologies by cleaving multiple critical players, including APP and Tau, supporting that blockade of δ-secretase may provide an innovative disease-modifying therapeutic strategy for treating AD.