Publication Date:
2009-02-20
Description:
Naturally occurring axonal pruning and neuronal cell death help to sculpt neuronal connections during development, but their mechanistic basis remains poorly understood. Here we report that beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) and death receptor 6 (DR6, also known as TNFRSF21) activate a widespread caspase-dependent self-destruction program. DR6 is broadly expressed by developing neurons, and is required for normal cell body death and axonal pruning both in vivo and after trophic-factor deprivation in vitro. Unlike neuronal cell body apoptosis, which requires caspase 3, we show that axonal degeneration requires caspase 6, which is activated in a punctate pattern that parallels the pattern of axonal fragmentation. DR6 is activated locally by an inactive surface ligand(s) that is released in an active form after trophic-factor deprivation, and we identify APP as a DR6 ligand. Trophic-factor deprivation triggers the shedding of surface APP in a beta-secretase (BACE)-dependent manner. Loss- and gain-of-function studies support a model in which a cleaved amino-terminal fragment of APP (N-APP) binds DR6 and triggers degeneration. Genetic support is provided by a common neuromuscular junction phenotype in mutant mice. Our results indicate that APP and DR6 are components of a neuronal self-destruction pathway, and suggest that an extracellular fragment of APP, acting via DR6 and caspase 6, contributes to Alzheimer's disease.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677572/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉 〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677572/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nikolaev, Anatoly -- McLaughlin, Todd -- O'Leary, Dennis D M -- Tessier-Lavigne, Marc -- R01 AG025970/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY007025/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY007025-24/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- R01 EY07025/EY/NEI NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2009 Feb 19;457(7232):981-9. doi: 10.1038/nature07767.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Research, Genentech, Inc., 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19225519" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Alzheimer Disease/metabolism
;
Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor/chemistry/*metabolism
;
Animals
;
Axons/*metabolism
;
Caspase 3/metabolism
;
Caspase 6/*metabolism
;
Caspases/*metabolism
;
Cell Death
;
Ligands
;
Mice
;
Neurons/*cytology/*metabolism
;
Peptide Fragments/chemistry/metabolism
;
Protein Binding
;
Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor/*metabolism
;
Signal Transduction
;
bcl-2-Associated X Protein/genetics/metabolism
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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