Dendrimers have been proved to interact with amyloids, although most of dendrimers assayed in amyloidogenic systems are toxic to cells. The development of glycodendrimers, poly(propyleneimine) (PPI) dendrimers decorated with maltose (Mal), represents the possibility of using dendrimers with a low intrinsic toxicity. In the present paper we show that fourth (PPI-G4-Mal) and fifth (PPI-G5-Mal) generation glycodendrimers have the capacity to interfere with Alzheimer's amyloid peptide Aβ(1-40) fibrilization. The interaction is generation dependent: PPI-G5-Mal blocks amyloid fibril formation generating granular nonfibrillar amorphous aggregates, whereas PPI-G4-Mal generates clumped fibrils at low dendrimer-peptide ratios and amorphous aggregates at high ratios. Both PPI-G4-Mal and PPI-G5-Mal are nontoxic to PC12 and SH-SY5Y cells. PPI-G4-Mal reduces amyloid toxicity by clumping fibrils together, whereas amorphous aggregates are toxic to PC12 cells. The results show that glycodendrimers are promising nontoxic agents in the search for anti-amyloidogenic compounds. Fibril clumping may be an anti-amyloid toxicity strategy.

Loss of memory during Alzheimer's disease (AD), a fatal neurodegenerative disorder, is associated with neuronal loss and the aggregation of amyloid proteins into neurotoxic β‐sheet enriched structures. However, the mechanism of amyloid protein aggregation is still not well understood due to many challenges when studying the endogenous amyloid structures in neurons or in brain tissue. Available methods either require chemical processing of the sample or may affect the amyloid protein structure itself. Therefore, new approaches, which allow studying molecular structures directly in neurons, are urgently needed. A novel approach is tested, based on label‐free optical photothermal infrared super‐resolution microspectroscopy, to study AD‐related amyloid protein aggregation directly in the neuron at sub‐micrometer resolution. Using this approach, amyloid protein aggregates are detected at the subcellular level, along the neurites and strikingly, in dendritic spines, which has not been possible until now. Here, a polymorphic nature of amyloid structures that exist in AD transgenic neurons is reported. Based on the findings of this work, it is suggested that structural polymorphism of amyloid proteins that occur already in neurons may trigger different mechanisms of AD progression.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by pathological aggregation of β-amyloid peptides and MAP-Tau protein. β-Amyloid (Aβ) is a peptide responsible for extracellular Alzheimer's plaque formation. Intracellular MAP-Tau aggregates appear as a result of hyperphosphorylation of this cytoskeletal protein. Small, oligomeric forms of Aβ are intermediate products that appear before the amyloid plaques are formed. These forms are believed to be most neurotoxic. Dendrimers are highly branched polymers, which may find an application in regulation of amyloid fibril formation. Several biophysical and biochemical methods, like circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence intensity of thioflavin T and thioflavin S, transmission electron microscopy, spectrofluorimetry (measuring quenching of intrinsic peptide fluorescence) and MTT-cytotoxicity assay, were applied to characterize interactions of cationic phosphorus-containing dendrimers of generation 3 and generation 4 (CPDG3, CPDG4) with the fragment of amyloid peptide (Aβ(1-28)) and MAP-Tau protein. We have demonstrated that CPDs are able to affect β-amyloid and MAP-Tau aggregation processes. A neuro-2a cell line (N2a) was used to test cytotoxicity of formed fibrils and intermediate products during the Aβ(1-28) aggregation. It has been shown that CPDs might have a beneficial effect by reducing the system toxicity. Presented results suggest that phosphorus dendrimers may be used in the future as agents regulating the fibrilization processes in Alzheimer's disease.

Amyloid peptides are the main component of one of the characteristic pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD): senile plaques. According to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, amyloid peptides may play a central role in the sequence of events that leads to neurodegeneration. However, there are other factors, such as oxidative stress, that may be crucial for the development of the disease. In the present paper, we show that it is possible, by using Fourier tranform infrared (FTIR) microscopy, to co-localize amyloid deposits and lipid peroxidation in tissue slides from patients affected by Alzheimer's disease. Plaques and lipids can be analyzed in the same sample, making use of the characteristic infrared bands for peptide aggregation and lipid oxidation. The results show that, in samples from patients diagnosed with AD, the plaques and their immediate surroundings are always characterized by the presence of oxidized lipids. As for samples from non-AD individuals, those without amyloid plaques show a lower level of lipid oxidation than AD individuals. However, it is known that plaques can be detected in the brains of some non-AD individuals. Our results show that, in such cases, the lipid in the plaques and their surroundings display oxidation levels that are similar to those of tissues with no plaques. These results point to lipid oxidation as a possible key factor in the path that goes from showing the typical neurophatological hallmarks to suffering from dementia. In this process, the oxidative power of the amyloid peptide, possibly in the form of nonfibrillar aggregates, could play a central role.

Reducing levels of the aggregation-prone Aβ peptide that accumulates in the brain with Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been a major target of experimental therapies. An alternative approach may be to stabilize the physiological conformation of Aβ. To date, the physiological state of Aβ in brain remains unclear, since the available methods used to process brain tissue for determination of Aβ aggregate conformation can in themselves alter the structure and/or composition of the aggregates. Here, using synchrotron-based Fourier transform infrared micro-spectroscopy, non-denaturing gel electrophoresis and conformational specific antibodies we show that the physiological conformations of Aβ and amyloid precursor protein (APP) in brain of transgenic mouse models of AD are altered before formation of amyloid plaques. Furthermore, focal Aβ aggregates in brain that precede amyloid plaque formation localize to synaptic terminals. These changes in the states of Aβ and APP that occur prior to plaque formation may provide novel targets for AD therapy.

Poly(propylene imine) (PPI) glycodendrimers are promising candidates as drug carriers and antiamyloidogenic and antiprionic agents. In this study the anti-β-amyloid capacity of PPI glycodendrimers of the fourth and fifth generations was investigated in vitro and in vivo. We assessed distinct PPI glycodendrimers including G4mDS and G5mDS, with electroneutral maltose shell, and G4mOS and G4m-IIIOS, with cationic maltose or maltotriose shell. Our results show that in vitro PPI maltose dendrimers reduce the toxicity of Aβ(1-42). However, only the electroneutral maltose dendrimers G4mDS and G5mDS reduce the toxicity of Alzheimer's disease brain extracts in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. PPI maltose dendrimers with electroneutral or cationic surface penetrate the cytoplasm of cultured cells, and they reach the brain when administered intranasally. Both cationic G4mOS and electroneutral G4mDS are able to modify the total burden of β-amyloid in APP/PS1 mice. The studied dendrimers did not reverse memory impairment in APP/PS1 mice following chronic administration; moreover, cationic G4mOS caused cognitive decline in nontransgenic mice. In spite of the capacity of G4mDS and G4mOS to cross the blood-brain barrier and modulate Aβ aggregation in APP/PS1 mice, further studies are needed to learn how to reduce the harmful effects of maltose dendrimers in vivo.

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain tissue can act as a seed to accelerate aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) into plaques in AD transgenic mice. Aβ seeds have been hypothesized to accelerate plaque formation in a prion-like manner of templated seeding and intercellular propagation. However, the structure(s) and location(s) of the Aβ seeds remain unknown. Moreover, in contrast to tau and α-synuclein, an in vitro system with prion-like Aβ has not been reported. Here we treat human APP expressing N2a cells with AD transgenic mouse brain extracts to induce inclusions of Aβ in a subset of cells. We isolate cells with induced Aβ inclusions and using immunocytochemistry, western blot and infrared spectroscopy show that these cells produce oligomeric Aβ over multiple replicative generations. Further, we demonstrate that cell lysates of clones with induced oligomeric Aβ can induce aggregation in previously untreated N2a APP cells. These data strengthen the case that Aβ acts as a prion-like protein, demonstrate that Aβ seeds can be intracellular oligomers and for the first time provide a cellular model of nucleated seeding of Aβ.