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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.03.28.486022

LTD-inducing low frequency stimulation enhances p-Tau181 and p-Tau217 in an age-dependent manner in live rats

Abstract

The progressive cognitive decline in Alzheimers disease (AD) patients correlates with the extent of tau pathology, in particular tau hyperphosphorylation, which is strongly age-associated. Although elevation of phosphorylated tau (p-Tau) on residues Thr181 (p-Tau181), Thr217 (p-Tau217), and Thr231 (p-Tau231) in cerebrospinal fluid or blood are recently proposed to be particularly sensitive markers of early AD, the generation of p-Tau during brain activity is poorly understood. A major form of synaptic plasticity, long-term depression (LTD), has recently been linked to the enhancement of tau phosphorylation. Here we show that low frequency stimulation (LFS), used to induce LTD, enhances p-Tau181 and p-Tau217 in an age-dependent manner in the hippocampus of live rats. In contrast, phosphorylation at residues Thr231, Ser202/Thr205, and Ser396 is less sensitive to LFS. Pharmacological antagonism of either NMDA or metabotropic glutamate 5 (mGluR5) receptors inhibits the elevation of both p-Tau181 and p-Tau217. Targeting ageing with a small molecule cognitive enhancer ISRIB (trans-isomer) prevents the enhancement of p-Tau by LFS in aged rats. Together, our data provide an in vivo means to uncover brain plasticity-related cellular and molecular processes of tau phosphorylation in health and ageing conditions.

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BibTeXRIS

Hu, N.-W., Zhang, Y., Yang, Y., Hu, Z., Zhu, M., Qin, S., Yu, P., Li, B., Xu, J., Rowan, M. J.. 2022-03-29. LTD-inducing low frequency stimulation enhances p-Tau181 and p-Tau217 in an age-dependent manner in live rats. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.03.28.486022

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