cAMP-PKA phosphorylation of tau confers risk for degeneration in aging association cortex.

Autor: Carlyle BC; Departments of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511., Nairn AC, Wang M, Yang Y, Jin LE, Simen AA, Ramos BP, Bordner KA, Craft GE, Davies P, Pletikos M, Šestan N, Arnsten AF, Paspalas CD
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2014 Apr 01; Vol. 111 (13), pp. 5036-41. Date of Electronic Publication: 2014 Mar 18.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1322360111
Abstrakt: The pattern of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is very distinctive: neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) composed of hyperphosphorylated tau selectively affect pyramidal neurons of the aging association cortex that interconnect extensively through glutamate synapses on dendritic spines. In contrast, primary sensory cortices have few NFTs, even in late-stage disease. Understanding this selective vulnerability, and why advancing age is such a high risk factor for the degenerative process, may help to reveal disease etiology and provide targets for intervention. Our study has revealed age-related increase in cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) phosphorylation of tau at serine 214 (pS214-tau) in monkey dorsolateral prefrontal association cortex (dlPFC), which specifically targets spine synapses and the Ca(2+)-storing spine apparatus. This increase is mirrored by loss of phosphodiesterase 4A from the spine apparatus, consistent with increase in cAMP-Ca(2+) signaling in aging spines. Phosphorylated tau was not detected in primary visual cortex, similar to the pattern observed in AD. We also report electron microscopic evidence of previously unidentified vesicular trafficking of phosphorylated tau in normal association cortex--in axons in young dlPFC vs. in spines in aged dlPFC--consistent with the transneuronal lesion spread reported in genetic rodent models. pS214-Tau was not observed in normal aged mice, suggesting that it arises with the evolutionary expansion of corticocortical connections in primates, crossing the threshold into NFTs and degeneration in humans. Thus, the cAMP-Ca(2+) signaling mechanisms, needed for flexibly modulating network strength in young association cortex, confer vulnerability to degeneration when dysregulated with advancing age.
Databáze: MEDLINE