Tau binding protein CAPON induces tau aggregation and neurodegeneration

Nat Commun. 2019 Jun 3;10(1):2394. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10278-x.

Abstract

To understand the molecular processes that link Aβ amyloidosis, tauopathy and neurodegeneration, we screened for tau-interacting proteins by immunoprecipitation/LC-MS. We identified the carboxy-terminal PDZ ligand of nNOS (CAPON) as a novel tau-binding protein. CAPON is an adaptor protein of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), and activated by the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor. We observed accumulation of CAPON in the hippocampal pyramidal cell layer in the AppNL-G-F -knock-in (KI) brain. To investigate the effect of CAPON accumulation on Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis, CAPON was overexpressed in the brain of AppNL-G-F mice crossbred with MAPT (human tau)-KI mice. This produced significant hippocampal atrophy and caspase3-dependent neuronal cell death in the CAPON-expressing hippocampus, suggesting that CAPON accumulation increases neurodegeneration. CAPON expression also induced significantly higher levels of phosphorylated, oligomerized and insoluble tau. In contrast, CAPON deficiency ameliorated the AD-related pathological phenotypes in tauopathy model. These findings suggest that CAPON could be a druggable AD target.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / metabolism*
  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics
  • Alzheimer Disease / metabolism*
  • Alzheimer Disease / pathology
  • Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / genetics
  • Animals
  • Atrophy
  • Caspase 3 / metabolism
  • Cell Death
  • Chromatography, Liquid
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Gene Knock-In Techniques
  • Hippocampus / metabolism*
  • Hippocampus / pathology
  • Humans
  • Immunoprecipitation
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Mice
  • Neurons / metabolism
  • Neurons / pathology
  • Protein Aggregation, Pathological / metabolism*
  • Protein Aggregation, Pathological / pathology
  • Pyramidal Cells / metabolism*
  • Pyramidal Cells / pathology
  • Tauopathies
  • tau Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing
  • Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor
  • MAPT protein, human
  • Mapt protein, mouse
  • Nos1ap protein, mouse
  • tau Proteins
  • Casp3 protein, mouse
  • Caspase 3