APP was found to colocalize with beta1 intergrins in neural cells [23]
Extracellular neuritic plaques are deposits of differently sized small peptides called beta-amyloid (Abeta) that are derived via sequential proteolytic cleavages of the b-amyloid precursor protein (APP) [6]
In Down Syndrome (DS) patients, the accumulation of intracellular Abeta precedes extracellular plaque formation [148] and the level of intraneuronal Ab decreases as the extracellular Abeta plaques accumulate [149]
While Abeta is neurotoxic, studies suggest that sAPPalpha is neuroprotective, making the subcellular distribution of APP an important factor in neurodegeneration [42-44]
Multiple lines of evidence demonstrate that overproduction of Abeta results in a neurodegenerative cascade leading to synaptic dysfunction, formation of intraneuronal fibrillary tangles and eventually neuron loss in affected areas of the brain [6,142]
Although excessive Abeta causes synaptic dysfunction and synapse loss [142], low levels of Abeta increase hippocampal longterm potentiation and enhances memory, indicating a novel positive, modulatory role on neurotransmission and memory [158,159]
Intraneuronal Abeta can also impair amygdala-dependent emotional responses by affecting the ERK/MAPK signaling pathway [153]
Picomolar levels of Abeta can also rescue neuronal cell death induced by inhibition of Abeta generation (by exposure to inhibitors of beta- or gamma-scretases) [160], possibly through regulating the potassium ion channel expression, hence affecting neuronal excitability [161]
APP interaction with mint proteins has been shown to affect APP processing by stabilizing cellular APP, altering both sAPPalpha and Abeta generation and secretion [166]
Indeed, phorbol ester’s effect on sAPPalpha secretion and Abeta generation though activation of protein kinase C (PKC) has been known for a long time [201-203]
We have found that estrogen may reduce Abeta levels by stimulating the alpha-secretase pathway and thereby inhibit Abeta generation
Interestingly, the stimulation of sAPPalpha secretion by estrogen can be blocked by a PKC inhibitor, suggesting the involvement of a PKC-dependent pathway [200]
However, a recent study blocking the conversion of testosterone to estrogen found an estrogen-independent improvement in cognitive function and lowering of plaque formation along with a decrease in BACE1 mRNA, protein level, and activity [211]. In addition, testosterone may also reduce the protein level of PS1 [196]
However, overexpression of APP betaCTF was found to be cytotoxic and cause neuronal degeneration, perhaps by perturbing APP signal transduction [96,97]
A recent report found that sAPPbeta can rescue gene expression of transthyretin and Klotho, which is decreased in APP/APLP2 deficient mice, but cannot rescue the lethality and neuromuscular synapse defects of these mice, suggesting a gene expression regulation function for sAPPbeta that is independent of developmental APP functions [95]
A dramatically reduced ADAM10 protein level in the platelets of sporadic AD patients was also found to correlate with the significantly decreased sAPPalpha levels found in their platlets and cerebrospinal fluid [55] and the reduced alpha-secretase activity in the temporal cortex homogenates of AD patients [56]
In contrast to Abeta, sAPPalpha has an important role in neuronal plasticity/survival and is protective against excitotoxicity [42,43]. sAPPalpha also regulates neural stem cell proliferation and is important for early CNS development [57,58]
We and others have also found that sAPPalpha can inhibit stress-induced CDK5 activation and participate in various neuroprotective reagent-mediated excitoprotection [44,59-61]
In a similar fashion, released AICD has been shown to possess transactivation activity and can regulate transcription of multiple genes including APP, GSK- 3b, KAI1, neprilysin, BACE1, p53, EGFR, and LRP1 [127-132]
In addition, free AICD can induce apoptosis and may play a role in sensitizing neurons to toxic stimuli [133,134]
Abeta is generated from b-amyloid precursor protein (APP) through sequential cleavages first by beta-secretase and then by gamma-secretase complex
There are reports showing that the protein and mRNA levels of KPI-containing APP isoforms are elevated in AD brain and associated with increased Ab deposition [9]; and prolonged activation of extrasynaptic NMDA receptor in neurons can shift APP expression from APP695 to KPI-containing APP isoforms, accompanied with increased production of Ab [10]
Cleavage of APP by caspases may also contribute to AD pathologies
It is also possible that APP betaCTF’s cytotoxic effect is actually mediated by the end products of gamma- and/or caspase-cleavage including APP intracellular domain (AICD), C31 and Jcasp which are cytotoxic (see below)
In addition to secretases, caspases (predominantly caspase- 3) can directly cleave APP at position Asp664 (based on the APP695 sequence) within the cytoplasmic tail during apoptosis to release a fragment containing the last 31 amino acids of APP (called C31)
Additional gamma-cleavage further generates the fragment (called Jcasp) containing the region between gamma- and caspase-cleavage sites
APP undergoes rapid anterograde transport in neurons
A role for APP has been suggested in neurite outgrowth and synaptogenesis, neuronal protein trafficking along the axon, transmembrane signal transduction, cell adhesion, calcium metabolism, etc, all requiring additional in vivo evidence (reviewed in [19])
Moreover, internalization of APP from the cell surface for endosomal/lysosomal degradation can be mediated by clathrin
Although sAPPbeta only differs from sAPPalpha by lacking the Abeta1-16 region at its carboxyl-terminus, sAPPbeta was reported to function as a death receptor 6 ligand and mediate axonal pruning and neuronal cell death [94]
Rab6, a member of the GTP-binding protein family of membrane trafficking regulators, is implicated in protein transport along biosynthetic and endocytic pathways and has also been found to affect APP processing
The APP gene is located on chromosome 21 in humans with three major isoforms arising from alternative splicing [3]. These are APP695, APP751 and APP770 (containing 695, 751, and 770 amino acids, respectively)
APP alphaCTF and betaCTF are further cleaved by gamma-secretase to generate p83 and Abeta, respectively
In addition to cleaving APP CTFs, gamma-secretase cleaves a series of functionally important transmembrane proteins, including Notch [120], cadherin [114], tyrosinase [121], ErbB4 [79], CD44 [70], etc.) (see review [122])
Overall, most studies suggest that APP plays some role in regulating protein trafficking
Inhibition of dynamin-mediated but not clathrin-mediated Abeta internalization was also found to reduce Abeta-induced neurotoxicity [154]
Recently, a novel gamma-secretase activating protein (GSAP) was identified and GSAP was found to selectively increase Abeta production through interaction with both gamma-secretase and the APP CTF substrate [117]
One possible mechanism for C31’s toxicity is that C31 complexes with APP to recruit the interacting partners that initiate the signals related to cellular toxicity [136]
For example, the APP C-terminus has been found to interact with all three mint (X11) family members (mint1, mint2, and mint3) involved in trafficking regulation [163-165]
During its transport, APP was found to interact with kinesin-I and functions as a kinesin-I membrane receptor to mediate axonal transport of beta-secretase (BACE1) and PS1 [26,27]
Antagonizing the extracellular interaction between cell-surface APP and LRP increased the level of cell surface APP while decreasing Abeta generation [187]
An LRP-related protein 1B (LRP1B) has a similar effect, binding APP at the plasma membrane, preventing APP internalization, and leading to decreased Abeta generation and increased sAPPalpha secretion [189]
One study showed that the ectodomain of Nicastrin binds to APP and Notch and can recruit them into the g-secretase complex, suggesting that Nicastrin may act as the gamma-secretase receptor [108]
On the other hand, Golgi-localized gamma-ear-containing ARF-binding (GGA) proteins have been found to interact with BACE1 and regulate its trafficking between the late Golgi and early endosomes; and depletion of GGA proteins increases the accumulation of BACE1 in acidic early endosomes for enhanced BACE1 stability and cleavage of APP [76-78]
The first step in Abeta generation is cleavage of APP by the beta-secretase
These results provide convincing evidence that BACE1 is the beta-secretase involved in APP metabolism [63-67]; and BACE1 activity is thought to be the rate-limiting factor in Abeta generation from APP
BACE1 deficiency in AD model mice have been shown to rescue cholinergic dysfunction, neuronal loss and memory deficits, correlating with a dramatic reduction in Abeta40/42 levels [79-81]
Some studies found that BACE1 can interact with reticulon/Nogo proteins, whose increased expression can block BACE1 in the ER with a neutral pH environment and thus inhibit BACE1 activity in Abeta generation [73-75]
This PS1-PLD1 interaction recruits PLD1 to the Golgi/TGN and thus potentially alters APP trafficking as PLD1 overexpression promotes budding of vesicles from the TGN containing APP and increases cell surface levels of APP [176,177]
We and others have shown that PS1 can also regulate the intracellular trafficking of APP
Co-expression of ADAM9 with APP promoted sAPPalpha production upon phorbol ester treatment, suggesting that ADAM9 possesses alpha-secretase activity [51]
APP751 and APP770 are expressed in most tissues and contain a 56 amino acid Kunitz Protease Inhibitor (KPI) domain within their extracellular regions
Alternatively, APP can be cleaved by alpha-secretase within the Abeta domain to release soluble APPa and preclude Abeta generation
Cleavage of APP by alpha-secretase precludes Abeta generation as the cleavage site is within the Abeta domain (at the Lys16- Leu17 bond), and releases a large soluble ectodomain of APP called sAPPalpha
From the TGN, APP can be transported in TGN-derived secretory vesicles to the cell surface where it is either cleaved by alpha-secretase to produce a soluble molecule, sAPPalpha [37], or re-internalized via an endosomal/ lysosomal degradation pathway [38,39]
Manipulation of ADAM17 can alter alpha-cleavage of APP and Abeta generation, with regulated alpha-cleavage abolished in ADAM17-deficient cells, suggesting that ADAM17 is likely the alpha-secretase responsible for regulated APP cleavage [47]
There are two main toxic species, Ab40 and Ab42, with Abeta42 more hydrophobic and more prone to fibril formation while only making up about 10% of the Abeta peptide produced [143]
Studies done on familial AD (FAD) mutations consistently show increases in the ratio of Abeta42/40 [105,144], suggesting that elevated levels of Abeta42 relative to Abeta40 is critical for AD pathogenesis, probably by providing the core for Abeta assembly into oligomers, fibrils and amyloidogenic plaques [145,146]
As DS also results in Abeta accumulation, the genes location suggests a link between BACE2 and APP processing
Indeed, BACE2 cleaves beta-secretase substrates such as wild-type and Swedish mutant APP, similar to BACE1, in enzymatic In vitro assays [89]
Downregulation of CD147 increases Abeta production but its overexpression has no effect on Abeta generation [113]
Inhibition of cathepsin B has been found to reduce Abeta production both in vivo and in vitro [92,93]
The neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) consist largely of hyperphosphorylated twisted filaments of the microtubule-associated protein tau [4,5]
In support of this, protein kinase A (PKA) has similar effects on reducing Abeta generation and stimulating the budding of APP-containing vesicles from the TGN [207]
PKC stimulates sAPPalpha secretion, reducing Abeta levels, even when the phosphorylation sites on APP are mutated or the entire cytoplasmic domain is deleted [204]
While PKC can directly phosphorylate APP Ser655 [205], it appears to affect APP metabolism by phosphorylating a different target
Additionally, estrogen has been found to facilitate binding of Rab11 to the TGN membrane and a dominant negative Rab11 mutant abolishes the estrogen-regulated change in APP trafficking, leading to increased Abeta formation [197]
Recently it was found that SorLA/ LR11 overexpression redistributed APP to the Golgi, decreasing Abeta generation, while SorLA/LR11 knockout mice have increased levels of Abeta, as found in AD patients [182]
However, another study failed to confirm the binding of TMP23/p21 to gamma-secretase, but rather suggested that TMP21/p23, which belongs to the p24 cargo family involved in vesicular trafficking regulation, influences APP trafficking and thus Abeta generation [116]
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If you find BEL Commons useful in your work, please consider citing: Hoyt, C. T., Domingo-Fernández, D., & Hofmann-Apitius, M. (2018). BEL Commons: an environment for exploration and analysis of networks encoded in Biological Expression Language. Database, 2018(3), 1–11.