Searching across hundreds of databases

Our searching services are busy right now. Your search will reload in five seconds.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

Infection Augments Expression of Mechanosensing Piezo1 Channels in Amyloid Plaque-Reactive Astrocytes.

Frontiers in aging neuroscience | 2018

A defining pathophysiological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the amyloid plaque; an extracellular deposit of aggregated fibrillar Aβ1-42 peptides. Amyloid plaques are hard, brittle structures scattered throughout the hippocampus and cerebral cortex and are thought to cause hyperphosphorylation of tau, neurofibrillary tangles, and progressive neurodegeneration. Reactive astrocytes and microglia envelop the exterior of amyloid plaques and infiltrate their inner core. Glia are highly mechanosensitive cells and can almost certainly sense the mismatch between the normally soft mechanical environment of the brain and very stiff amyloid plaques via mechanosensing ion channels. Piezo1, a non-selective cation channel, can translate extracellular mechanical forces to intracellular molecular signaling cascades through a process known as mechanotransduction. Here, we utilized an aging transgenic rat model of AD (TgF344-AD) to study expression of mechanosensing Piezo1 ion channels in amyloid plaque-reactive astrocytes. We found that Piezo1 is upregulated with age in the hippocampus and cortex of 18-month old wild-type rats. However, more striking increases in Piezo1 were measured in the hippocampus of TgF344-AD rats compared to age-matched wild-type controls. Interestingly, repeated urinary tract infections with Escherichia coli bacteria, a common comorbidity in elderly people with dementia, caused further elevations in Piezo1 channel expression in the hippocampus and cortex of TgF344-AD rats. Taken together, we report that aging and peripheral infection augment amyloid plaque-induced upregulation of mechanoresponsive ion channels, such as Piezo1, in astrocytes. Further research is required to investigate the role of astrocytic Piezo1 in the Alzheimer's brain, whether modulating channel opening will protect or exacerbate the disease state, and most importantly, if Piezo1 could prove to be a novel drug target for age-related dementia.

Pubmed ID: 30405400 RIS Download

Associated grants

None

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


UniProt (tool)

RRID:SCR_002380

Collection of data of protein sequence and functional information. Resource for protein sequence and annotation data. Consortium for preservation of the UniProt databases: UniProt Knowledgebase (UniProtKB), UniProt Reference Clusters (UniRef), and UniProt Archive (UniParc), UniProt Proteomes. Collaboration between European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Protein Information Resource. Swiss-Prot is a curated subset of UniProtKB.

View all literature mentions

Thermo Fisher Scientific (tool)

RRID:SCR_008452

Commercial vendor and service provider of laboratory reagents and antibodies. Supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services.

View all literature mentions

Millipore (tool)

RRID:SCR_008983

An Antibody supplier

View all literature mentions

FISHER (tool)

RRID:SCR_009181

THIS RESOURCE IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE, documented on February 1st, 2022. Software application for genetic analysis of classical biometric traits like blood pressure or height that are caused by a combination of polygenic inheritance and complex environmental forces. (entry from Genetic Analysis Software)

View all literature mentions

Abcam (tool)

RRID:SCR_012931

A commercial antibody supplier which supplies primary and secondary antibodies, biochemicals, proteins, peptides, lysates, immunoassays and other kits.

View all literature mentions

C57BL/6J (tool)

RRID:IMSR_JAX:000664

Mus musculus with name C57BL/6J from IMSR.

View all literature mentions

FAM38A (N-15) (antibody)

RRID:AB_10842990

This monoclonal targets FAM38A (N-15)

View all literature mentions

FAM38A antibody (antibody)

RRID:AB_11143245

This polyclonal targets FAM38A antibody

View all literature mentions

Chicken Anti-GFAP Polyclonal Antibody, Unconjugated (antibody)

RRID:AB_304558

This polyclonal targets GFAP - Astrocyte Marker

View all literature mentions

Glial Fibiralliry Acidic Protein (antibody)

RRID:AB_305808

This unknown targets The initial immunization was performed with a preparation of full length human recombinant GFAP expressed in bacteria and highly purified

View all literature mentions

GraphPad Prism (software resource)

RRID:SCR_015807

Statistical analysis software that combines scientific graphing, comprehensive curve fitting (nonlinear regression), understandable statistics, and data organization. Designed for biological research applications in pharmacology, physiology, and other biological fields for data analysis, hypothesis testing, and modeling.

View all literature mentions

FAM38A (N-15) (antibody)

RRID:AB_10842990

This monoclonal targets FAM38A (N-15)

View all literature mentions

FAM38A antibody (antibody)

RRID:AB_11143245

This polyclonal targets FAM38A antibody

View all literature mentions

FAM38A (N-15) (antibody)

RRID:AB_10842990

This monoclonal targets FAM38A (N-15)

View all literature mentions

Glial Fibiralliry Acidic Protein (antibody)

RRID:AB_305808

This unknown targets The initial immunization was performed with a preparation of full length human recombinant GFAP expressed in bacteria and highly purified

View all literature mentions

FAM38A antibody (antibody)

RRID:AB_11143245

This polyclonal targets FAM38A antibody

View all literature mentions

FAM38A (N-15) (antibody)

RRID:AB_10842990

This monoclonal targets FAM38A (N-15)

View all literature mentions

Chicken Anti-GFAP Polyclonal Antibody, Unconjugated (antibody)

RRID:AB_304558

This polyclonal targets GFAP - Astrocyte Marker

View all literature mentions

GraphPad Prism (software resource)

RRID:SCR_015807

Statistical analysis software that combines scientific graphing, comprehensive curve fitting (nonlinear regression), understandable statistics, and data organization. Designed for biological research applications in pharmacology, physiology, and other biological fields for data analysis, hypothesis testing, and modeling.

View all literature mentions

GraphPad Prism (software resource)

RRID:SCR_015807

Statistical analysis software that combines scientific graphing, comprehensive curve fitting (nonlinear regression), understandable statistics, and data organization. Designed for biological research applications in pharmacology, physiology, and other biological fields for data analysis, hypothesis testing, and modeling.

View all literature mentions

FAM38A antibody (antibody)

RRID:AB_11143245

This polyclonal targets FAM38A antibody

View all literature mentions

FAM38A (N-15) (antibody)

RRID:AB_10842990

This monoclonal targets FAM38A (N-15)

View all literature mentions