A Library of Monoclonal Antibodies to Torpedo Cholinergic Synaptosomes

Abstract: A library of monoclonal antibodies was generated to the cholinergic synaptosome. The immunogen was a preparation of highly purified synaptosomes from Torpedo electric organ. One hundred forty-one hybridoma cell lines were generated from the fusion of a single mouse. Tests reveal these cells produce antibodies with a vast range of neuronal specificities. The initial screen for specificity of antibody production was solid phase radioimmune binding to the original, highly purified synaptosome preparation. Subsequent tissue specificity tests have indicated that most antibodies are synaptosome-specific amongst the fish tissues tested: brain, liver, and purified synaptic vesicles. Less than 11% cross-react with liver. Many antibodies cross-react with frog and rat CNS. Localization within the frog and rat nervous tissue has revealed a vast array of antibody staining patterns. Some antibodies stain in a synaptic fashion. A few stain a restricted set of mammalian CNS neurons. Others define a broader set of CNS neurons. These Torpedo antibodies promise to be valuable probes with which to describe the molecular cell biology of the nervous system, of neurons in general, and of cholinergic neurons in particular.     

ADP-Ribosylation of Membrane Proteins in Cholinergic Nerve Terminals

Abstract: Lysed Torpedo synaptosomes or washed synaptosomal membranes were incubated with [³²P]NAD⁺ and subjected to electrophoresis on SDS-polyacrylamide gels. More than eight membrane proteins were ADP-ribosylated. The most intensely labeled proteins were those of M_r= 62,000 and 82,000. Radiolabeling was more intense in synaptosomes than in other subcel-lular fractions. Cholera toxin caused ribosylation of additional synaptosomal proteins with M_r= 42,000 and (in some preparations) 49,000. Neither endogenous nor cholera toxin-catalyzed ADP-ribosylation required added guanyl nu-cleotides. Cholera toxin increased the adenylate cyclase activity of synaptosomal membranes, suggesting that the cholera toxin substrates are regulatory components of adenylate cyclase in these synaptosomes.     

Differential Alteration of Various Cholinergic Markers in Cortical and Subcortical Regions of Human Brain in Alzheimer''s Disease

The main objective of the present study was to determine whether cholinergic markers (choline acetyltransferase activity and nicotinic and muscarinic receptors) are altered in Alzheimer's disease. Choline acetyltransferase activity in Alzheimer's brains was markedly reduced in various cortical areas, in the hippocampus, and in the nucleus basalis of Meynert. The maximal density of nicotinic sites, measured using the novel nicotinic radioligand N-[3H]methylcarbamylcholine, was decreased in cortical areas and hippocampus but not in subcortical regions. M1 muscarinic cholinergic receptor sites were assessed using [3H]pirenzepine as a selective ligand; [3H]pirenzepine binding parameters were not altered in most cortical and subcortical structures, although the density of sites was modestly increased in the hippocampus and striatum. Finally, M2-like muscarinic sites were studied using [3H]-acetylcholine, under muscarinic conditions. In contrast to M1 muscarinic sites, the maximal density of M2-like muscarinic sites was markedly reduced in all cortical areas and hippocampus but was not altered in subcortical structures. These findings reveal an apparently selective alteration in the densities of putative nicotinic and muscarinic M2, but not M1, receptor sites in cortical areas and in the hippocampus in Alzheimer's disease.     

Gene Expression Profiles of Cholinergic Nucleus Basalis Neurons in Alzheimer's Disease

Cholinergic neurons of the nucleus basalis (NB) are selectively vulnerable in Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the molecular mechanisms associated with their dysfunction remain unknown. We used single cell RNA amplification and custom array technology to examine the expression of functional classes of mRNAs found in anterior NB neurons from normal aged and AD subjects. mRNAs encoding neurotrophin receptors, synaptic proteins, protein phosphatases, and amyloid-related proteins were evaluated. We found that trkB and trkC mRNAs were selectively down-regulated in NB neurons, whereas p75^NTR mRNA levels remained stable in end stage AD. TrkA mRNA was reduced by approximately 28%, but did not reach statistical significance. There was a down-regulation of synaptophysin, synaptotagmin, and protein phosphatases PP1 and PP1 mRNAs in AD. In contrast, we found a selective up-regulation of cathepsin D mRNA in NB neurons in AD brain. Thus, anterior NB neurons undergo selective alterations in gene expression in AD. These results may provide clues to the molecular pathogenesis of NB neuronal degeneration during AD.     

Ontogeny of Neurochemical Markers for Noradrenergic, GABAergic and Cholinergic Neurons in Neocortex Lesioned with Methylazoxymethanol Acetate

Abstract: Methylazoxymethanol acetate (MAM), a potent, rapidly eliminated nucleic acid alkylating agent, produces microencephaly in rat pups when injected into their dams on day 15 of gestation. In the adult microencephalic rats, neuronal loss is largely confined to telencephalic structures, such as the superficial neocortical laminae, whose neuroepithelial progenitor cells were undergoing vigorous replication during the chemical exposure. Histological examination of the forebrain 2 days after injection revealed early selective damage to the ventricular geminal zone with relative sparing of cortical plate neurons generated on earlier days. The degree of specificity of MAM's action on neurochemically defined neuronal populations was examined by measuring presynaptic markers for GABAergic, noradrenergic and cholinergic neurons in atrophic lateral cortex from 20 days gestation to adulthood. Although treatment reduced GABAergic markers (GABA, its synthetic enzyme and synaptosomal uptake process) in proportion to loss of cortex mass (-67%), the maturational pattern for remaining GABAergic neurons was virtually normal. Although the maturational sequence of noradrenergic markers was similar to control, the concentration of endogenous norepinephrine, [³H]norepinephrine uptake and tyrosine hydroxylase specific activity were two- to fourfold higher than control at each time. However, total noradrenergic markers per cortex section were nearly identical to control throughout development, indicating that development of the noradrenergic axonal arbor in neocortex was insensitive to loss of neurons in the terminal field. Maturation of cholinergic markers (endogenous acetylcholine, its synthetic enzyme and [³H]choline uptake) in the atrophic cortex was biphasic: concentrations were similar to control values for the first 12 postnatal days, but gradually rose to levels twofold higher than control. These results indicate that neurochemical alterations observed in cortex from prenatally MAM-treated rats are primarily the result of early selective elimination of neuronal subpopulations. Fetal MAM exposure appeared to have minimal effects on biochemical differentiation of neurons remaining intact in the atrophic cortex. MAM appears to be a useful toxin for producing selective loss of neuronal groups based on their time of generation in the fetus.     

Identification of a Proteoglycan Antigen Characteristic of Cholinergic Synaptic Vesicles

An antiserum to cholinergic synaptic vesicles isolated from the electric organ of Torpedo marmorata was purified by adsorption with fractions containing unwanted antigens. The adsorbed antiserum responds to the proteoglycan core material of the cholinergic synaptic vesicles. The major antigen migrates in an anomalous fashion on sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), forming a broad band with an apparent molecular weight of approximately 120,000 - 300,000. The distribution of this antigen after sucrose density gradient centrifugation of synaptic vesicles is the same as that of vesicular ATP. The antigen comigrates with a substance that can be stained with Alcian-Blue after SDS-PAGE of highly purified synaptic vesicles. This substance is related to the low-molecular-weight, Alcian-Blue-positive glycosaminoglycan vesiculin, which is formed from the high-molecular-weight proteoglycan by prolonged dialysis against water or by protease treatment. No antibodies were detected against vesiculin itself, indicating that the antigenic determinants are restricted to the proteoglycan.     

Phosphatidylinositol Kinase Is Reduced in Alzheimer''s Disease

Phosphatidylinositol (PI) kinase and PI phosphate (PIP) kinase activities were measured in postmortem samples of brain tissue from patients with Alzheimer's disease and nondemented control subjects. A membrane-free cytosolic fraction from four neocortical locations, with exogenous inositol lipids as the substrate, was used. Tissue from patients with Alzheimer's disease was characterized by reduced PIP formation; the reduction was 50% in prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, and parietal cortex and 40% in precentral gyrus. In contrast, no alterations were found in PI bisphosphate formation in these four neocortical locations. The specific changes in PI kinase but not PIP kinase activity suggest that the findings may have functional relevance to the involvement of brain membrane processes in Alzheimer's disease.     

Intralaminar Neurochemical Distributions in Human Midtemporal Cortex: Comparison Between Alzheimer''s Disease and the Normal

The intralaminar distributions of transmitter and nontransmitter enzyme activities and amino acid levels were determined in the midtemporal cortices from normal individuals and established cases of Alzheimer's disease. In the normal, choline acetyltransferase (CAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities were relatively high in the outer cortical layers, particularly, for CAT, in the two granular layers (II and IV). Both activities were reduced in Alzheimer's disease at all, although generally most extensively in the outer and middle layers of the grey matter whereas activities were near normal in the white matter. Further, the enzyme distribution patterns of these cholinergic activities were also disrupted in Alzheimer's disease and the activity of CAT throughout the cortex was generally reduced to that found in the white matter. No such differences in distribution were found for two other enzymes, pseudocholinesterase and lactate dehydrogenase. Assessment of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in the normal revealed a much more extensive intralaminar variation in the enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase, compared with the level of GABA itself. In contrast with the cholinergic enzymes, neither the levels nor intralaminar patterns of GABA were altered in Alzheimer's disease. From an analysis of free amino acids at the different cortical levels, the cortical pattern of glutamic acid in the normal was different from that for GABA, aspartic acid, or nontransmitter amino acids such as alanine. Neither of the putative amino acids, glutamate or aspartate, was altered in Alzheimer's disease. These findings demonstrate the relatively selective nature of microchemical changes occurring in the cortex in Alzheimer's disease and suggest that a functional abnormality in cholinergic input to the outer neocortical layers (I-IV) with predominantly receptive and associative functions may be an important feature of the disease.     

Altered Protein Tyrosine Phosphorylation in Alzheimer''s Disease

The activity of protein tyrosine kinase was determined in extracts from Alzheimer's disease brains and age- and postmortem time-matched control brains at autopsy using the synthetic peptide substrate poly(Glu4Tyr1). The specific activity of protein tyrosine kinases in the particulate fraction decreased roughly twofold (p less than 0.02) in Alzheimer's disease frontal cortex relative to unaffected control cortex. Cytosolic protein tyrosine kinase activity in Alzheimer's disease tissue was not significantly different from that in control tissue. In contrast to reduced particulate protein tyrosine kinase activity, analysis of Western blots of cytosolic and particulate fractions revealed increases in cytosolic antiphosphotyrosine immunoreactive polypeptides with molecular masses of 55 and 60 kDa. Quantitative immunohistochemistry and morphometry of frontal cortex sections with the antiphosphotyrosine antibody indicated increased antiphosphotyrosine staining in the neurons, although the number of antiphosphotyrosine-positive neurons per square millimeter decreased. Also, increased antiphosphotyrosine staining was observed in the hippocampal neurons. These results suggest that altered protein tyrosine kinases and protein tyrosine phosphorylation are involved in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease.     

Presynaptic Serotonergic Dysfunction in Patients with Alzheimer''s Disease

Indices of presynaptic serotonergic nerve endings were assayed in neocortical biopsy samples from patients with histologically verified Alzheimer's disease. The concentrations of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, serotonin uptake, and K+-stimulated release of endogenous serotonin were all found to be reduced below control values. Changes occurred in samples from both the frontal and temporal lobes, but they were most severe (at least a 55% reduction) in the temporal lobe. This is indicative of substantial serotonergic denervation. Values for serotonergic markers in Alzheimer's disease samples did not show correlations with rating of the severity of dementia, indices of cholinergic innervation, or senile plaque and cortical pyramidal neurone loss. However, neurofibrillary tangle count and an index of glucose oxidation (both probably reflecting pyramidal cells) correlated with the concentration of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid.     

Differential Effects of Acidic and Basic Fibroblast Growth Factors on Spinal Cord Cholinergic, GABAergic, and Glutamatergic Neurons

When spinal cord cultures from embryonic day 12 rats were cultured at low density, both acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors significantly increased neuronal survival and neurite outgrowth in a dose-dependent manner. The effects of acidic fibroblast growth factor were independent of heparin, in contrast to its mitogenic effects on both NIH3T3 cells and cerebral cortical astrocytes. In high-density cultures, acidic fibroblast growth factor increased choline acetyltransferase activity by 57%, glutamic acid decarboxylase activity by 58%, and aspartate aminotransferase activity by 65%. Basic fibroblast growth factor increased choline acetyltransferase activity by 73% and glutamic acid decarboxylase activity by 200% but decreased aspartate aminotransferase activity by 40%. Growing these cultures in the presence of a mitotic inhibitor did not significantly alter the effect of acidic or basic fibroblast growth factor on these enzyme activities. These results demonstrate that acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors differentially affect neurotransmitter enzyme levels of multiple classes of neurons, rather than having effects on a single neuronal population.     

Distinctly Phosphorylated Neurofilaments in Different Classes of Neurons

Abstract: Recent immunohistochemical experiments revealed that specific anti-neurofilament monoclonal antibodies yield distinct patterns in different types of neurons. This led to the suggestion that neurofilaments are a family of heterogeneous molecules whose occurrence and distribution are a function of cell type. In the present study we examined the hypothesis that this heterogeneity is due to differences in the extent of phosphorylation of neurofilament proteins in distinct types of neurons. In view of the large number of potential phosphorylation sites on the heavy neurofilament protein (NF-H), we focused on this protein and examined its extent of phosphorylation in different types of neurons. This was performed using neurofilaments isolated from axons of the cholinergic bovine ventral root motor neurons and of the chemically heterogeneous bovine dorsal root neurons. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis revealed that the isoelectric point of ventral root NF-H (pl 5.10) was ∼0.2 pl units more acidic than that of dorsal root NH-F. This difference was abolished by treating the neurofilaments with alkaline phosphatase, suggesting that the excess negative charge of ventral root NF-H is due to increased levels of phosphorylation. Amino acid analysis confirmed that the phosphoserine content of ventral root NF-H (27.2 ± 2.5% of the serines) is markedly higher than that of dorsal root NF-H (15.5 ± 6.2% of the serines). These findings provide a novel system for studying the biochemistry and function of distinctly phosphorylated neurofilaments in different types of neurons.     

M1 Muscarinic Agonist Treatment Reverses Cognitive and Cholinergic Impairments of Apolipoprotein E-Deficient Mice

Abstract: Recent studies suggest that apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays a specific role in brain cholinergic function and that the E4 allele of apoE (apoE4), a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), may predict the extent of cholinergic dysfunction and the efficacy of cholinergic therapy in this disease. Animal model studies relevant to this hypothesis revealed that apoE-deficient (knockout) mice have working memory impairments that are associated with distinct dysfunction of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons. Cholinergic replacement therapy utilizing M₁-selective muscarinic agonists has been proposed as effective treatment for AD patients. In the present study, we examined whether the memory deficits and brain cholinergic deficiency of apoE-deficient mice can be ameliorated by the M₁-selective agonist 1-methylpiperidine-4-spiro-(2'-methylthiazoline), [AF150(S)]. Treatment of apoE-deficient mice with AF150(S) for 3 weeks completely abolished their working memory impairments. Furthermore, this reversal of cognitive deficit was associated with a parallel increase of histochemically determined brain choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase levels and with the recovery of these cholinergic markers back to control levels. These findings show that apoE deficiency-related cognitive and cholinergic deficits can be ameliorated by M₁-selective muscarinic treatment. They also provide a novel model system for development and evaluation of therapeutic strategies directed specifically at the AD patients whose condition is attributed to the apoE genotype.     

Galanin-Like Immunoreactivity Is Unchanged in Alzheimer''s Disease and Parkinson''s Disease Dementia Cerebral Cortex

Galanin is a recently isolated neuropeptide that is of particular interest in dementing disorders because of its known colocalization with choline acetyltransferase in magnocellular neurons of the basal nucleus of Meynert. These neurons degenerate in Alzheimer's disease, and there is a corresponding deficiency of cortical choline acetyltransferase activity. In the present study, galanin-like immunoreactivity was measured in the postmortem cerebral cortex and hippocampus of 10 controls and 14 patients who had had Alzheimer's disease. Significant reductions of choline acetyltransferase activity (50-60%) were found in all regions examined; however, there was no significant effect on concentrations of galanin-like immunoreactivity. Similar measurements were made in postmortem tissues of 12 control and 13 demented Parkinsonian patients who had had Alzheimer-type cortical pathology. Choline acetyltransferase activity was again significantly decreased in all regions examined but there were no significant reductions in galanin-like immunoreactivity. Experimental lesions of the fornix in rats produced parallel significantly correlated reductions of both choline acetyltransferase activity and galanin-like immunoreactivity in the hippocampus. Galanin-like immunoreactivity in the human hypothalamus consisted of two molecular-weight species on gel-permeation chromatography, and two forms were resolved by reverse-phase HPLC. The paradoxical preservation of galanin-like immunoreactivity, despite depletion of the activity of choline acetyltransferase, with which it is colocalized, is as yet unexplained. Recent studies have shown that galanin inhibits both acetylcholine release in the hippocampus and memory acquisition; therefore, preserved galanin may exacerbate the cholinergic and cognitive deficits that accompany dementia.     

Presence of Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide-Like Immunoreactivity in the Cholinergic Electromotor System of Torpedo marmorata

Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)-like immunoreactivity was detected in the cholinergic electro-motor system of Torpedo marmorata using a combination of immunohistochemical assays, radioimmunoassay, and HPLC. The immunohistochemical assays revealed that the distribution of VIP-like immunoreactivity in the electric lobes, electromotor nerves, and electric organ is comparable to that of the stable cholinergic synaptic vesicle marker vesicle-specific proteoglycan. Ligation of the electromotor nerves caused a marked accumulation of VIP-like immunoreactivity in the lobes (180%) and the proximal portions of the electromotor nerves (130%) and a decrease in the electric organ (-50%), when measured by radioimmunoassay using synthetic VIP (porcine sequence) as the standard. VIP-like immunoreactivity in extracts of electric lobes electromotor nerves, and electric organ was eluted from a semipreparative reverse-phase HPLC column as a single peak with a retention time similar to that of porcine VIP. Rechromatography at higher resolution on an analytical column indicated diversity between the molecular forms of VIP-like immunoreactivity extracted from electric lobe and electric organ, suggesting the possibility of posttranslational processing.     

Lipid Composition in Different Regions of the Brain in Alzheimer''s Disease/Senile Dementia of Alzheimer''s Type

The lipid compositions of 10 different brain regions from patients affected by Alzheimer's disease/senile dementia of Alzheimer's type were analyzed. The total phospholipid amount decreased somewhat in nucleus caudatus and in white matter. The cortical areas that are morphologically affected by Alzheimer's disease, i.e., frontal and temporal cortex and the hippocampus, showed elevated contents of lipid solvent-extractable phosphatidylinositol. Sphingomyelin content was decreased in regions rich in myelin. There was a 20-50% decrease in dolichol amount in all investigated parts of the brain, but no change was seen in the polyisoprenoid pattern. Levels of alpha-unsaturated polyprenes were decreased in Alzheimer brains. Dolichyl-phosphate content increased in most regions, up to 100%. In both control and Alzheimer tissue almost all of the dolichyl-phosphate was covalently bound, apparently through glycosylation. Cholesterol amounts were highly variable but mostly unchanged, whereas ubiquinone concentrations increased by 30-100% in most regions in brains affected by Alzheimer's disease. These results demonstrate that both phospholipids and neutral lipids are modified in brains affected by Alzheimer's disease/senile dementia of Alzheimer's type.     

Hydrodynamic Molecular Weight of Solubilized Cholinergic Synaptic Vesicle Glycoprotein ATPase

The Torpedo californica electric organ synaptic vesicle glycoprotein ATPase was solubilized with octaethyleneglycoldodecyl ether and stabilized with phosphatidylserine. The complex was analyzed by size exclusion chromatography and band sedimentation velocity ultracentrifugation in water/glycerol and deuterium oxide/glycerol density gradients. The complex was found to have a Stokes' radius of 79 +/- 0.7 A, a sedimentation velocity coefficient at 20 degrees C in water of 6.8 +/- 0.2S, a partial specific volume of 0.81 +/- 0.01 cm3/g, and a frictional coefficient of 1.6. The molecular weight of the solubilized complex was calculated to be 320,000 +/- 7,000 and that of the protein 210,000 +/- 9,000. The relationship of this latter value to the major transport ATPase types is discussed.     

Mg-ATPase and Torpedo Cholinergic Synaptic Vesicles

The reported presence of Mg-ATPase activity in cholinergic synaptic vesicles from the electric organ of Torpedo marmorata was reinvestigated in view of possible contamination of vesicles by other subcellular fractions. After dilution in concentrated sucrose, the vesicular fraction isolated on a sedimentation sucrose gradient was purified further on a flotation density gradient. It appears that this treatment allows separation of the vesicles according to their content. The two vesicular content markers, acetylcholine and ATP, are recovered as sharp coincident peaks at a density close to 0.48 M sucrose. Empty vesicles are identified in denser regions by the protein pattern on gel electrophoresis which is identical to the pattern obtained for filled vesicles. Refractionation of vesicles depleted of their acetylcholine content by valinomycin leads to an extreme picture, with a massive shift of the vesicles toward denser regions. We have then shown that a ouabain-insensitive Mg-ATPase is indeed associated with the vesicle membrane, but the activity is fully apparent only when vesicles are permeabilized either as the result of the fractionation procedure or after detergent treatment. The relative insensitivity of the Mg-ATPase associated with the synaptic vesicles to oligomycin, N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, and azide indicates that this enzyme differs from the classic F1F0 mitochondrial enzyme. The most striking finding is the sensitivity to vanadate of the vesicular Mg-ATPase, which suggests the involvement of a phosphorylated intermediate. On the basis of both the difference in inhibitor sensitivity between untreated and detergent-treated vesicles and of the pronase experiments, the possibility that the enzyme has an inward orientation is discussed.     

Down''s Syndrome Individuals Begin Life with Normal Levels of Brain Cholinergic Markers

We measured the activities of the cholinergic marker enzymes choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in autopsied brains of seven infants (age range 3 months to 1 year) with Down's syndrome (DS), a disorder in which virtually all individuals will develop by middle age the neuropathological changes of Alzheimer's disease accompanied by a marked brain cholinergic reduction. When compared with age-matched controls cholinergic enzyme activity was normal in all brain regions of the individuals with infant DS with the exception of above-normal activity in the putamen (ChAT) and the occipital cortex (AChE). Our neurochemical observations suggest that DS individuals begin life with a normal complement of brain cholinergic neurons. This opens the possibility of early therapeutic intervention to prevent the development of brain cholinergic changes in patients with DS.     

Reduced Proteins in Temporal Cortex in Alzheimer''s Disease: An Electrophoretic Study

Cytoplasmic and pellet fractions from post-mortem temporal cortex from eight cases of neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease, one case of cerebrovascular dementia, and five controls were examined by sodium dodecylsulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. No differences were observed in the cytoplasmic proteins from the five controls and the case of cerebrovascular dementia. In five cases of Alzheimer's disease with neurone loss, there was a major loss of a cytoplasmic 55,000-dalton protein identified as tubulin and variable reductions in cytoplasmic proteins of molecular weights of 28,000, 30,000, 92,000, and 200,000 daltons. Three cases of Alzheimer's disease had no detectable neurone loss; two of these cases had protein patterns indistinguishable from the controls and one showed some reduction in soluble tubulin only. These results indicate that decreases of particular proteins in the temporal cortex in Alzheimer's disease may be associated with neurone loss.