Resumen de Apoe4 pathology in alzheimer's disease from the perspective of organelle dysfunction in astrocytes
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia in advanced ages affecting more than 40 million people around the world. It is a complex disease that affects not only neurons but also astrocytes. Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) has been described as the most important genetic risk factor for the sporadic form of the disease and interestingly, astrocytes are its main secretors. The research about its pathogenic mechanisms has mainly focused on its extracellular role. On the contrary, we analysed the dysregulations that endogenous intracellular ApoE4 causes on astrocytes. We focused on 2 principal physiological processes altered in Alzheimer’s disease: calcium signalling and mitochondrial functions. As cellular model, we used immortalized astrocytes that express human ApoE3 (non-associated with any pathology) or ApoE4. Using fluorescent calcium indicators and the technique of Calcium Imaging, we determined that ApoE4 astrocytes have altered calcium homeostasis as they have lower basal intracellular calcium levels but higher purinergic-induced calcium signals compared to ApoE3 astrocytes. A high V-ATPase activity, and hence, higher lysosomal calcium uptake in ApoE4 astrocytes explains these alterations. Moreover, lysosomal calcium release after purinergic receptor activation is followed by higher endoplasmic reticulum (ER) calcium mobilization in ApoE4 than in ApoE3 astrocytes. Extracellular calcium entry is similar in both cell types. Our studies also demonstrated that the lack of lipoproteins in the extracellular medium upregulates the magnitude of purinergic-elicited calcium responses in ApoE3 astrocytes, as extracellular calcium entry amplifies lysosomal calcium release. This feature is missing in ApoE4 astrocytes being the magnitude of calcium responses unaffected by extracellular lipoproteins. On the other hand, we described alterations in mitochondrial dynamics determined by real-time microscopy and fluorescent mitochondria labelling. In particular, ApoE4 cell mitochondria do not perform fission after inhibition of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation whereas ApoE3 astrocyte mitochondria perform it. In addition, ApoE4 astrocytes have increased mitochondrial motility, reduction of Parkin, a protein involved in mitophagy, and reduction in mitochondrial DNA content compared to ApoE3 astrocytes. In summary, we demonstrated, for the first time, that endogenous ApoE4 alters calcium signalling and mitochondrial functions in astrocytes. Taking into account that ApoE is expressed throughout the life of individuals, these astrocytic alterations might appear in the early stages of the Alzheimer’s disease. In order to advance in the detection of such early phases of the pathology, and since cerebrospinal fluid proteins reflect the cellular function of brain cells, we next identified a group of astrocytic proteins present in the cerebrospinal fluid related to Alzheimer’s disease that we propose as a functional astrocytic signature for early stages of the disease. This signature is composed of S100B, ApoE, prostaglandin D2 synthetase, cystatin 3, integral membrane protein 2C and clusterin. Overall, endogenous ApoE4 alters astrocyte functions, a phenomenon that can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, but also, to its detection through cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers.
