Altered Brain Arginine Metabolism and Polyamine System in a P301S Tauopathy Mouse Model: A Time-Course Study

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Ping Liu¹  Hannah Mein¹  Faraz Ahmad¹  Yu Jing¹  Hu Zhang² 

[1] Brain Health Research Centre, Department of Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin P.O. Box 56, New Zealand;Brain Health Research Centre, School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, Dunedin P.O. Box 56, New Zealand;

关键词: tauopathy;    PS19 mice;    tau;    arginine;    polyamine;    spermine;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms23116039

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Altered arginine metabolism (including the polyamine system) has recently been implicated in the pathogenesis of tauopathies, characterised by hyperphosphorylated and aggregated microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT) accumulation in the brain. The present study, for the first time, systematically determined the time-course of arginine metabolism changes in the MAPT P301S (PS19) mouse brain at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 months of age. The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine are critically involved in microtubule assembly and stabilization. This study, therefore, further investigated how polyamine biosynthetic and catabolic enzymes changed in PS19 mice. There were general age-dependent increases of L-arginine, L-ornithine, putrescine and spermidine in the PS19 brain (particularly in the hippocampus and parahippocampal region). While this profile change clearly indicates a shift of arginine metabolism to favor polyamine production (a polyamine stress response), spermine levels were decreased or unchanged due to the upregulation of polyamine retro-conversion pathways. Our results further implicate altered arginine metabolism (particularly the polyamine system) in the pathogenesis of tauopathies. Given the role of the polyamines in microtubule assembly and stabilization, future research is required to understand the functional significance of the polyamine stress response and explore the preventive and/or therapeutic opportunities for tauopathies by targeting the polyamine system.

【 授权许可】

Unknown