One of the hallmarks of the pathology in Alzheimer's disease is the deposition of amyloid plaques throughout the brain, especially within the hippocampus and amygdala. Transgenic mice that overexpress the Swedish mutation of human amyloid precursor protein (hAPPswe; Tg2576) show age-dependent memory deficits in hippocampus-dependent learning tasks. However, the performance of aged Tg2576 mice in amygdaladependent learning tasks has not been thoroughly assessed. We trained young (2-4 mo) and old (16-18 mo) Tg2576 and wild-type mice in a T-maze alternation task (hippocampus-dependent) and a Pavlovian fear-conditioning task (amygdala-and hippocampus-dependent). As previously reported, old Tg2576 mice showed impaired acquisition of rewarded alternation; none of these mice reached the criterion of at least five out of six correct responses over three consecutive days. In contrast, old Tg2576 mice showed normal levels of conditional freezing to an auditory conditional stimulus (CS) and acquired a contextual discrimination normally. However, when the salience of the fear-conditioning context was decreased, old (12-14 mo) Tg2576 mice were impaired at acquiring fear to the conditioning context, but not to the tone CS. Histological examination of a subset of the mice verified the existence of amyloid plaques in the cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala of old, but not young, Tg2576 mice. Hence, learning and memory deficits in old Tg2576 mice are limited to hippocampus-dependent tasks, despite widespread amyloid deposition in cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala.
Asthma is a disease characterized by airway epithelial barrier destruction, chronic airway inflammation, and airway remodeling. Repeated damage to airway epithelial cells by allergens in the environment plays an important role in the pathophysiology of asthma. Ferroptosis is a novel form of regulated cell death mediated by lipid peroxidation in association with free iron‐mediated Fenton reactions. In this study, we explored the contribution of ferroptosis to house dust mite (HDM)‐induced asthma models. Our in vivo and in vitro models showed labile iron accumulation and enhanced lipid peroxidation with concomitant nonapoptotic cell death upon HDM exposure. Treatment with ferroptosis inhibitors deferoxamine (DFO) and ferrostatin‐1 (Fer‐1) illuminated the role of ferroptosis and related damage‐associated molecular patterns in HDM‐treated airway epithelial cells. Furthermore, DFO and Fer‐1 reduced HDM‐induced airway inflammation in model mice. Mechanistically, NCOA4‐mediated ferritin‐selective autophagy (ferritinophagy) was initiated during ferritin degradation in response to HDM exposure. Together, these data suggest that ferroptosis plays an important role in HDM‐induced asthma and that ferroptosis may be a potential treatment target for HDM‐induced asthma.
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