Alzheimer's disease (AD) is accompanied by memory loss due to neuronal cell death caused by toxic amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) aggregates. In the healthy brain, a group of amyloid-degrading enzymes including neprilysin (NEP) maintain Aβ levels at physiologically low concentrations but, with age and under some pathological conditions, expression and activity of these enzymes decline predisposing to late-onset AD. Hence, up-regulation of NEP might be a viable strategy for prevention of Aβ accumulation and development of the disease. As we have recently shown, inhibitors of histone deacetylases, in particular, valproic acid (VA), were capable of up-regulating NEP expression and activity in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell lines characterised by very low levels of NEP. In the present study, analysing the effect of i.p. injections of VA to rats, we have observed up-regulation of expression and activity of NEP in rat brain structures, in particular, in the hippocampus. This effect was brain region- and age-specific. Administration of VA has also restored NEP activity and memory deficit in adult rats caused by prenatal hypoxia. This suggests that VA and more specific HDAC inhibitors can be considered as potential pharmaceutical agents for up-regulation of NEP activity and improvement of cognitive functions of ageing brain.
Long-term effects of prenatal hypoxia on embryonic days E14 or E18 on the number, type and localization of cortical neurons, density of labile synaptopodin-positive dendritic spines, and parietal cortex-dependent behavioral tasks were examined in the postnatal ontogenesis of rats. An injection of 5′ethynyl-2′deoxyuridine to pregnant rats was used to label neurons generated on E14 or E18 in the fetuses. In control rat pups a majority of cells labeled on E14 were localized in the lower cortical layers V-VI while the cells labeled on E18 were mainly found in the superficial cortical layers II-III. It was shown that hypoxia both on E14 and E18 results in disruption of neuroblast generation and migration but affects different cell populations. In rat pups subjected to hypoxia on E14, the total number of labeled cells in the parietal cortex was decreased while the number of labeled neurons scattered within the superficial cortical layers was increased. In rat pups subjected to hypoxia on E18, the total number of labeled cells in the parietal cortex was also decreased but the number of scattered labeled neurons was higher in the lower cortical layers. It can be suggested that prenatal hypoxia both on E14 and E18 causes a disruption in neuroblast migration but with a different outcome. Only in rats subjected to hypoxia on E14 did we observe a reduction in the total number of pyramidal cortical neurons and the density of labile synaptopodin-positive dendritic spines in the molecular cortical layer during the first month after birth which affected development of the cortical functions. As a result, rats subjected to hypoxia on E14, but not on E18, had impaired development of the whisker-placing reaction and reduced ability to learn reaching by a forepaw. The data obtained suggest that hypoxia on E14 in the period of generation of the cells, which later differentiate into the pyramidal cortical neurons of the V-VI layers and form cortical minicolumns, affects formation of cortical cytoarchitecture, neuronal plasticity and behavior in postnatal ontogenesis which testify to cortical dysfunction. Hypoxia on E18 does not significantly affect cortical structure and parietal cortex-dependent behavioral tasks.
Prevention of amyloidosis by chemical compounds is a potential therapeutic strategy in Alzheimer's, prion and other neurodegenerative diseases. Regularly branched dendrimers and less regular hyperbranched polymers have been suggested as promising inhibitors of amyloid aggregation. As demonstrated in our previous studies, some widely used dendrimers (PAMAM, PPI) could not only inhibit amyloid aggregation in solution but also dissolve mature fibrils. In this study we have performed computer simulation of polylysine dendrimers of 3rd and 5th generations (D3 and D5) and analysed the effect of these dendrimers and some hyperbranched polymers on a lysine base (HpbK) on aggregation of amyloid peptide in solution. The effects of dendrimers on cell viability and their protective action against Aβ-induced cytotoxicity and alteration of K+channels was also analysed using human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. In addition, using fluorescence microscopy, we analysed uptake of FITC-conjugated D3 by SH-SY5Y cells and its distribution in the brain after intraventricular injections to rats. Our results demonstrated that dendrimers D3 and D5 inhibited amyloid aggregation in solution while HpbK enhanced amyloid aggregation. Cell viability and patch-clamp studies have shown that D3 can protect cells against Aβ-induced cytotoxicity and K+channel modulation. In contrast, HpbK had no protective effect against Aβ. Fluorescence microscopy studies demonstrated that FITC-D3 accumulates in the vacuolar compartments of the cells and can be detected in various brain structures and populations of cells after injections to the brain. As such, polylysine dendrimers D3 and D5 can be proposed as compounds for developing antiamyloidogenic drugs.
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