guanosine-triphosphate and Down-Syndrome

The endocytic pathway is a system of dynamically communicating vesicles, known as early endosomes, that internalize, sort, and traffic nutrients, trophic factors, and signaling molecules to sites throughout the cell. In all eukaryotic cells, early endosome functions are regulated by Rab5 activity, dependent upon its binding to GTP, whereas Rab5 bound to GDP represents the biologically inactive form. An increasing number of neurodegenerative diseases are associated with endocytic dysfunction and, in the case of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Down syndrome (DS), an early appearing highly characteristic reflection of endocytic pathway dysfunction is an abnormal enlargement of Rab5 positive endosomes. In AD and DS, endosome enlargement accompanying accelerated endocytosis and fusion, upregulated transcription of endocytosis-related genes, and aberrant signaling by endosomes are caused by pathological Rab5 overactivation. In this chapter, we describe a battery of methods that have been used to assess Rab5 activation in models of AD/DS and are applicable to other cell and animal disease models. These methods include (1) fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) assay; (2) quantitative measurement of endosome size by light, fluorescence and electron microscopy; (3) detection of GTP-Rab5 by in situ immunocytochemistry in vitro and ex vivo; (4) immunoprecipitation and GTP-agarose pull-down assay; (5) biochemical detection of Rab5 in endosome-enriched subcellular fractions obtained by OptiPrep™ density gradient centrifugation of mouse brain.

Topics: Alzheimer Disease; Animals; Down Syndrome; Endocytosis; Endosomes; Guanosine Triphosphate; Mice; rab5 GTP-Binding Proteins

β-Amyloid precursor protein (APP) and its cleaved products are strongly implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Endosomes are highly active APP processing sites, and endosome anomalies associated with upregulated expression of early endosomal regulator, rab5, are the earliest known disease-specific neuronal response in AD. Here, we show that the rab5 effector APPL1 (adaptor protein containing pleckstrin homology domain, phosphotyrosine binding domain and leucine zipper motif) mediates rab5 overactivation in Down syndrome (DS) and AD, which is caused by elevated levels of the β-cleaved carboxy-terminal fragment of APP (βCTF). βCTF recruits APPL1 to rab5 endosomes, where it stabilizes active GTP-rab5, leading to pathologically accelerated endocytosis, endosome swelling and selectively impaired axonal transport of rab5 endosomes. In DS fibroblasts, APPL1 knockdown corrects these endosomal anomalies. βCTF levels are also elevated in AD brain, which is accompanied by abnormally high recruitment of APPL1 to rab5 endosomes as seen in DS fibroblasts. These studies indicate that persistent rab5 overactivation through βCTF-APPL1 interactions constitutes a novel APP-dependent pathogenic pathway in AD.

Topics: Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; Aged; Alzheimer Disease; Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; Animals; Brain; Cell Line, Tumor; Cells, Cultured; Down Syndrome; Endosomes; Female; Fibroblasts; Gene Knockdown Techniques; Guanosine Triphosphate; HEK293 Cells; Humans; Male; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Middle Aged; Neurons; rab5 GTP-Binding Proteins

Topics: Adenosine Diphosphate; Adenosine Triphosphate; Adolescent; Blood Sedimentation; Chromatography; Cyclic AMP; Down Syndrome; Erythrocytes; Female; Glycerophosphates; Glycolysis; Guanosine Triphosphate; Hematocrit; Humans; Karyotyping; Male; NAD; NADP