Effects of tau phosphorylation on proteasome activity

Dysfunction of proteasome contributes to the accumulation of the abnormally hyperphosphorylated tau in Alzheimer's disease. However, whether tau hyperphosphorylation and accumulation affect the activity of proteasome is elusive. Here we found that a moderate tau phosphorylation activated the trypsin-like activity of proteasome, whereas further phosphorylation of tau inhibited the activity of the protease in HEK293 cells stably expressing tau441. Furthermore, tau hyperphosphorylation could partially reverse lactacystin-induced inhibition of proteasome. These results suggest that phosphorylation of tau plays a dual role in modulating the activity of proteasome.     

Correlation of behavior changes and BOLD signal in Alzheimer-like rat model

Memory impairment is usually the early and most promi-nent clinical manifestation of Alzheimer disease (AD), aprogressive neurodegenerative illness characterized bygradual deposition of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillarytangles in the brain of the patie…     

Expression of 1N3R-Tau Isoform Inhibits Cell Proliferation by Inducing S Phase Arrest in N2a Cells

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein implicated in neurodegenerative tauopathies. Six tau isoforms are generated from a single gene through alternative splicing of exons 2, 3 and 10 in human brain. Differential expression of tau isoforms has been detected in different brain areas, during neurodevelopment and in neurodegenerative disorders. However, the biological significance of different tau isoforms is not clear. Here, we investigated the individual effect of six different isoforms of tau on cell proliferation and the possible mechanisms by transient expression of eGFP-labeled tau isoform plasmid in N2a cells. Our study showed the transfection efficiency was comparable between different isoforms of tau by examining GFP expression. Compared with other isoforms, we found expression of 1N3R-tau significantly inhibited cell proliferation by Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and BrdU incorporation. Flow cytometry analysis further showed expression of 1N3R-tau induced S phase arrest. Compared with the longest isoform of tau, expression of 1N3R-tau induced cyclin E translocation from the nuclei to cytoplasm, while it did not change the level of cell cycle checkpoint proteins. These data indicate that 1N3R-tau inhibits cell proliferation through inducing S phase arrest.     

Prolonged Alzheimer-like tau hyperphosphorylation induced by simultaneous inhibition of phosphoinositol-3 kinase and protein kinase C in N2a cells

Co-injection of wortmannin (inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, PI3K) and GF109203X(inhibitor of protein kinase C, PKC) into the rat brain was found to induce spatial memory deficiency and enhance tau hyperphosphorylation in the hippocampus of rat brain. To establish a cell model with durative Alzheimer-like tau hyperphosphorylation in this study, we treated N2a neuroblastoma cells with wortmannin and GF109203X separately and simultaneously, and measured the glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3)activity by y-32p-labeling and the level of tau phosphorylation by Western blotting. It was found that the application of wortmannin alone only transitorily increased the activity of GSK-3 (about 1 h) and the level of tau hyperphosphorylation at Ser^396/Ser^404 and Ser^199/Ser^202 sites (no longer than 3 h); however, a prolonged and intense activation of GSK-3 (over 12 h) and enhanced tau hyperphosphorylation (about 24 h) were observed when these two selective kinase inhibitors were applied together. We conclude that the simultaneous inhibition of PI3K and PKC can induce GSK-3 overactivation, and further strengthen and prolong the Alzheimerlike tau hyperphosphorylation in N2a cells, suggesting the establishment of a cell model with early pathological events of Alzheimer‘s disease.     

Nitration and oligomerization of tau induced by peroxynitrite inhibit its microtubule-binding activity

Abnormally nitrated tau has been found recently in the neurofibrillary tangles of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, whether and how nitration of tau is involved in AD pathology is not known. Herein, we found that in vitro incubation of peroxynitrite with recombinant tau resulted in nitration and oligomerization of tau in a dosage-dependent manner. Moreover, the nitrated tau showed a significantly decreased binding activity to taxol-stabilized microtubulesin in vitro. Further study demonstrated that peroxynitrite also induced tau nitration in neuroblastoma N2a cell line, and the nitrated tau was accumulated in the cells. We conclude that abnormal nitration of tau contributes to the impaired biological activity of tau in binding to the microtubules and the aggregation of tau, implying a novel mechanism responsible for the neurodegeneration seen in AD brain.     

Potential of a simple solid-phase extraction method coupled to analytical and bioanalytical methods for an improved determination of microcystins in algal samples

Artemia assays and protein phosphatase assays are commonly used for the screening of microcystins (MCs) in algal samples instead of the standard mouse toxicity assay. However, it has been shown that their results are often biased because of the matrix effects. To eliminate the possible interferences in the algal matrices, a new solid-phase extraction (SPE) method using silica gel as a sorbent was developed and evaluated. Results show that this SPE method could not only reduce the toxicity of the Microcystis samples towards brine shrimp by 50-80% but also eliminate 90-100% of the endogenous phosphatase activity from Spirulina and Chlorella samples, thus improving the determination of microcystins in algal samples using either of the two bioanalytical methods. The application of this SPE method as an off-line cleanup for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection is also described in this study. After SPE, the HPLC chromatograms of Microcystis samples have clear baselines that have no interferences with the analyte peaks.     

褪黑素与维生素 E 对抗花萼海绵诱癌素毒性作用的差异

最近的研究发现,褪黑素对花萼海绵诱癌素 (calyculin A , CA) 引起的骨架蛋白神经细丝异常过度磷酸化有保护作用 . 为进一步探讨褪黑素对骨架蛋白τ异常过度磷酸化的保护作用及其机制,分别用 CA, CA+ 褪黑素或 CA+ 维生素 E 处理鼠野生型成神经瘤细胞 (N2awt) ,采用 MTT 法测定细胞存活率,用免疫印迹法测定τ蛋白磷酸化水平,用 ³²P- 特异底物标记技术检测 GSK-3 和 PP-2A 活性,并进一步测定了细胞内脂质过氧化产物丙二醛含量,细胞内过氧化氢酶、超氧化物歧化酶和谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶活性 . 结果显示：褪黑素不仅对 CA 引起的抗氧化酶活性降低和脂质过氧化的保护作用强于经典抗氧化剂维生素 E ,而且对τ蛋白磷酸化的保护作用也强于经典抗氧化剂维生素 E ;褪黑素可同时激活 PP-2A 又抑制 GSK-3 ,而维生素 E 同时抑制两种酶的活性 . 研究提示：褪黑素既通过抗氧化作用,也通过调节细胞内磷酸化平衡对抗 CA 对神经细胞的毒性作用 .