A three-dimensional human neural cell culture model of Alzheimer's disease

Nature. 2014 Nov 13;515(7526):274-8. doi: 10.1038/nature13800. Epub 2014 Oct 12.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics
  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism*
  • Alzheimer Disease / pathology*
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / chemistry
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / genetics
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism
  • Cell Culture Techniques / methods*
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods
  • Extracellular Space / metabolism
  • Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins / metabolism
  • Models, Biological*
  • Neural Stem Cells / metabolism*
  • Neural Stem Cells / pathology
  • Neurites / metabolism
  • Phosphorylation
  • Presenilin-1 / metabolism
  • Protein Aggregation, Pathological
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • tau Proteins / chemistry
  • tau Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • MAP2 protein, human
  • Microtubule-Associated Proteins
  • Presenilin-1
  • presenilin 1, mouse
  • tau Proteins
  • Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3