Inhibiting USP16 rescues stem cell aging and memory in an Alzheimer's model
- Stanford University, United States
- University of California, Irvine, United States
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease observed with aging that represents the most common form of dementia. To date, therapies targeting end-stage disease plaques, tangles, or inflammation have limited efficacy. Therefore, we set out to identify a potential earlier targetable phenotype. Utilizing a mouse model of AD and human fetal cells harboring mutant amyloid precursor protein, we show cell intrinsic neural precursor cell (NPC) dysfunction precedes widespread inflammation and amyloid plaque pathology, making it the earliest defect in the evolution of the disease. We demonstrate that reversing impaired NPC self-renewal via genetic reduction of USP16, a histone modifier and critical physiological antagonist of the Polycomb Repressor Complex 1, can prevent downstream cognitive defects and decrease astrogliosis in vivo. Reduction of USP16 led to decreased expression of senescence gene Cdkn2a and mitigated aberrant regulation of the BMP pathway, a previously unknown function of USP16. Thus, we reveal USP16 as a novel target in an AD model that can both ameliorate the NPC defect and rescue memory and learning through its regulation of both Cdkn2a and BMP signaling.'
Data availability
Datasets generated are available on Dryad Digital Repository (doi:10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4qz0 and doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vx0k6djtf)
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Single-Cell RNA-sequencing of neural precursor cells from an Alzheimer's mouse model, wild-type mice, and Alzheimer's mice rescued with Usp16 haploinsufficiencyDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.mpg4f4qz0.
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Microarray analysis of subventricular zone, hippocampus, and cortex from an Alzheimer's mouse model, wild-type mice, and Alzheimer's mice rescued with Usp16 haploinsufficiencyDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.vx0k6djtf.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (Graduate Student Fellowship)
- Elizabeth Y Chen
Chan Zucherberg Foundationg Biohub Initiative
- Elizabeth Y Chen
- Robert C Jones
- Sai Saroja Kolluru
- Stephen R Quake
NIH (1R01AG059712-01)
- Felicia Reinitz
- Elizabeth Y Chen
- Benedetta Nicolis di Robilant
- Jane Antony
- Neha Gubbi
- Dalong Qian
- Michael F Clarke
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Jessica Young, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Mice were housed in accordance with the guidelines of Institutional AnimalCare Use Committee. All animal procedures and behavioral studies involved in this manuscript are compliant to Stanford Administrative Panel on Laboratory Animal Care (APLAC) Protocol 10868 pre-approved by the Stanford Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Version history
- Preprint posted: December 22, 2020 (view preprint)
- Received: December 22, 2020
- Accepted: March 17, 2022
- Accepted Manuscript published: March 21, 2022 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: May 20, 2022 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2022, Reinitz et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Inhibiting USP16 rescues stem cell aging and memory in an Alzheimer's model
eLife 11:e66037.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.66037
Further reading
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Extramedullary erythropoiesis is not expected in healthy adult mice, but erythropoietic gene expression was elevated in lineage-depleted spleen cells from Cd47−/− mice. Expression of several genes associated with early stages of erythropoiesis was elevated in mice lacking CD47 or its signaling ligand thrombospondin-1, consistent with previous evidence that this signaling pathway inhibits expression of multipotent stem cell transcription factors in spleen. In contrast, cells expressing markers of committed erythroid progenitors were more abundant in Cd47−/− spleens but significantly depleted in Thbs1−/− spleens. Single-cell transcriptome and flow cytometry analyses indicated that loss of CD47 is associated with accumulation and increased proliferation in spleen of Ter119−CD34+ progenitors and Ter119+CD34− committed erythroid progenitors with elevated mRNA expression of Kit, Ermap, and Tfrc. Induction of committed erythroid precursors is consistent with the known function of CD47 to limit the phagocytic removal of aged erythrocytes. Conversely, loss of thrombospondin-1 delays the turnover of aged red blood cells, which may account for the suppression of committed erythroid precursors in Thbs1−/− spleens relative to basal levels in wild-type mice. In addition to defining a role for CD47 to limit extramedullary erythropoiesis, these studies reveal a thrombospondin-1-dependent basal level of extramedullary erythropoiesis in adult mouse spleen.
