Title | A three-dimensional human neural cell culture model of Alzheimer's disease. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2014 |
Authors | Choi, SHoon, Kim, YHye, Hebisch, M, Sliwinski, C, Lee, S, D'Avanzo, C, Chen, H, Hooli, B, Asselin, C, Muffat, J, Klee, JB, Zhang, C, Wainger, BJ, Peitz, M, Kovacs, DM, Woolf, CJ, Wagner, SL, Tanzi, RE, Kim, DYeon |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 515 |
Issue | 7526 |
Pagination | 274-8 |
Date Published | 2014 Nov 13 |
ISSN | 1476-4687 |
Keywords | Alzheimer Disease, Amyloid beta-Peptides, Cell Culture Techniques, Cell Differentiation, Drug Evaluation, Preclinical, Extracellular Space, Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3, Humans, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Models, Biological, Neural Stem Cells, Neurites, Phosphorylation, Presenilin-1, Protein Aggregation, Pathological, Reproducibility of Results, tau Proteins |
Abstract | Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, characterized by two pathological hallmarks: amyloid-β plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease posits that the excessive accumulation of amyloid-β peptide leads to neurofibrillary tangles composed of aggregated hyperphosphorylated tau. However, to date, no single disease model has serially linked these two pathological events using human neuronal cells. Mouse models with familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) mutations exhibit amyloid-β-induced synaptic and memory deficits but they do not fully recapitulate other key pathological events of Alzheimer's disease, including distinct neurofibrillary tangle pathology. Human neurons derived from Alzheimer's disease patients have shown elevated levels of toxic amyloid-β species and phosphorylated tau but did not demonstrate amyloid-β plaques or neurofibrillary tangles. Here we report that FAD mutations in β-amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 are able to induce robust extracellular deposition of amyloid-β, including amyloid-β plaques, in a human neural stem-cell-derived three-dimensional (3D) culture system. More importantly, the 3D-differentiated neuronal cells expressing FAD mutations exhibited high levels of detergent-resistant, silver-positive aggregates of phosphorylated tau in the soma and neurites, as well as filamentous tau, as detected by immunoelectron microscopy. Inhibition of amyloid-β generation with β- or γ-secretase inhibitors not only decreased amyloid-β pathology, but also attenuated tauopathy. We also found that glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) regulated amyloid-β-mediated tau phosphorylation. We have successfully recapitulated amyloid-β and tau pathology in a single 3D human neural cell culture system. Our unique strategy for recapitulating Alzheimer's disease pathology in a 3D neural cell culture model should also serve to facilitate the development of more precise human neural cell models of other neurodegenerative disorders. |
DOI | 10.1038/nature13800 |
Alternate Journal | Nature |
PubMed ID | 25307057 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC4366007 |
Grant List | 5P01AG15379 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States 5R37MH060009 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States P01 AG004953 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States P01 AG015379 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States P30 HD018655 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States P30 NS045776 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States P50 AG005134 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States R01 AG014713 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States R01 NS045860 / NS / NINDS NIH HHS / United States R21 AG031483 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States RF1 AG048080 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States |