The increased production of amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta) in Alzheimer's disease is acknowledged to be a key pathogenic event. In this study, we examined the response of primary human and rat brain cortical cultures to Abeta administration and found a marked increase in the tyrosine phosphorylation content of numerous neuronal proteins, including tau and putative microtubule-associated protein 2c (MAP2c). We also found that paired helical filaments of aggregated and hyperphosphorylated tau are tyrosine phosphorylated, indicating that changes in the phosphotyrosine content of cytoplasmic proteins in response to Abeta are potentially an important process. Increased tyrosine phosphorylation of cytoskeletal and other neuronal proteins was specific to fibrillar Abeta(25-35) and Abeta(1-42). The tyrosine phosphorylation was blocked by addition of the Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor 4-amino-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-7(t-butyl)pyrazol(3,4-d)pyramide (PP2) and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor LY 294002. Tyrosine phosphorylation of tau and MAP2c was concomitant with an increase in the tyrosine phosphorylation and subsequent putative activation of the non-receptor kinase, focal adhesion kinase (FAK). Immunoprecipitation of Fyn, a member of the Src family, from Abeta(25-35)-treated neurons showed an increased association of Fyn with FAK. Abeta treatment of cells also stimulated the sustained activation of extracellular regulated kinase-2, which was blocked by addition of PP2 and LY 294002, suggesting that FAK/Fyn/PI3-kinase association is upstream of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase signaling in Abeta-treated neurons. This cascade of signaling events contains the earliest biochemical changes in neurons to be described in response to Abeta exposure and may be critical for subsequent neurodegenerative changes.

Tau is a major microtubule-associated protein of axons and is also the principal component of the paired helical filaments (PHFs) that comprise the neurofibrillary tangles found in Alzheimer's disease and other tauopathies. Besides phosphorylation of tau on serine and threonine residues in both normal tau and tau from neurofibrillary tangles, Tyr-18 was reported to be a site of phosphorylation by the Src-family kinase Fyn. We examined whether tyrosine residues other than Tyr-18 are phosphorylated in tau and whether other tyrosine kinases might phosphorylate tau. Using mass spectrometry, we positively identified phosphorylated Tyr-394 in PHF-tau from an Alzheimer brain and in human fetal brain tau. When wild-type human tau was transfected into fibroblasts or neuroblastoma cells, treatment with pervanadate caused tau to become phosphorylated on tyrosine by endogenous kinases. By replacing each of the five tyrosines in tau with phenylalanine, we identified Tyr-394 as the major site of tyrosine phosphorylation in tau. Tyrosine phosphorylation of tau was inhibited by PP2 (4-amino-5-(4-chlorophenyl-7-(t-butyl)pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine), which is known to inhibit Src-family kinases and c-Abl. Cotransfection of tau and kinases showed that Tyr-18 was the major site for Fyn phosphorylation, but Tyr-394 was the main residue for Abl. In vitro, Abl phosphorylated tau directly. Abl could be coprecipitated with tau and was present in pretangle neurons in brain sections from Alzheimer cases. These results show that phosphorylation of tau on Tyr-394 is a physiological event that is potentially part of a signal relay and suggest that Abl could have a pathogenic role in Alzheimer's disease.

MAP1B is a developmentally regulated microtubule-associated phosphoprotein that regulates microtubule dynamics in growing axons and growth cones. We used mass spectrometry to map 28 phosphorylation sites on MAP1B, and selected for further study a putative primed GSK3β site and compared it with two nonprimed GSK3β sites that we had previously characterised. We raised a panel of phosphospecific antibodies to these sites on MAP1B and used it to assess the distribution of phosphorylated MAP1B in the developing nervous system. This showed that the nonprimed sites are restricted to growing axons, whereas the primed sites are also expressed in the neuronal cell body. To identify kinases phosphorylating MAP1B, we added kinase inhibitors to cultured embryonic cortical neurons and monitored MAP1B phosphorylation with our panel of phosphospecific antibodies. These experiments identified dual-specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase (DYRK1A) as the kinase that primes sites of GSK3β phosphorylation in MAP1B, and we confirmed this by knocking down DYRK1A in cultured embryonic cortical neurons by using shRNA. DYRK1A knockdown compromised neuritogenesis and was associated with alterations in microtubule stability. These experiments demonstrate that MAP1B has DYRK1A-primed and nonprimed GSK3β sites that are involved in the regulation of microtubule stability in growing axons.

No abstract

Tau protein is the principal component of the neurofibrillary tangles found in Alzheimer's disease (AD), where it is hyperphosphorylated on serine and threonine residues. It is hypothesized that this hyperphosphorylation contributes to neurodegeneration through the destabilization of microtubules. There is now evidence that phosphorylation of tau can also occur on tyrosine residues. Human tau has five tyrosines numbered 18, 29, 197, 310, and 394, according to the sequence of the longest CNS isoform. Tyrosines 18, 197, and 394 have been shown to be phosphorylated in the brain of patients with AD whereas tyrosine 394 is the only residue that has been described to date that is phosphorylated in physiological conditions. Src family kinases and spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) have been shown to phosphorylate tyrosine 18 while c-Abl is capable of phosphorylating tyrosine 394. Recently, a dual specificity kinase termed TTBK1 has been characterized in human brain and shown to be able to phosphorylate residue 197 of tau. Data about the role of tau tyrosine phosphorylation in neuronal physiology are still scarce and preliminary. In contrast, there is mounting evidence suggesting that tau tyrosine phosphorylation is an early event in the pathophysiology of AD and that Fyn and c-Abl are critical in the neurodegenerative process which occurs in tauopathies.