Effect of a potent and metabolically stable endocannabinoid receptor agonist on inflammasome-induced neuroinflammation in a comorbid mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and HIV

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PROJECT SUMMARY of the administrative supplement The major objectives of the parent R01 grant are 1) to develop, characterize, and evaluate the delivery of HIV Tat-specific CRISPR Cas9/gRNA and AMG315 across the in vitro BBB using the MENP-based drug delivery approach to excise HIV-1 Tat gene, and attenuate cannabinoid and Tat-induced inflammasome, respectively. 2) to study the in vivo therapeutic efficacy of MENP nanoformulation containing CRISPR, and AMG315 using doxycycline-inducible HIV-1 Tat transgenic mice (iTat) as an HIV/neuroAIDS and cannabinoid administration animal model. 3) to validate the effects of these nanoformulations on neuronal plasticity and neurocognitive functions in vivo. Thus the three major focuses in the parent R01 are HIV, magneto-electric nanoparticle (MENP)-based drug delivery, and the cannabinoid pathway, in particular the use of AMG315. Here we want to broaden the scope of these three major focuses by also evaluating the potential of using AMG315 to mitigate NLRP3 inflammasome-mediated markers of neuroinflammation, amyloid, and neurofibrillary tangle pathology in a comorbidity model of HIV and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As more people living with HIV (PLHIV) are reaching geriatric ages when the risk of developing AD reaches exponential proportion, PLHIV has an additional burden of secreting toxic proteins such as HIV-Tat that might explain the prevalent HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND). More cases of HIV-infected individuals diagnosed with AD are being reported. This is not surprising given that similar to Aβ, HIV-Tat protein can activate inflammasome, increase Aβ levels by inhibiting neprilysin and enhancing BACE activity thereby predisposing HIV and AD comorbid patients for synergistic effects. Unfortunately, there has been no therapeutic success so far either for HIV-HAND or memory issues in AD, including clinical trials using cannabinoid compounds, although the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is known to play a fundamental role in memory. The failure of ECS ligands is mainly due to poor pharmacokinetics especially the short-life of compounds. This greatest challenge of stability was successfully addressed by our Co-I, Dr. Alexandros Makriyannis by discovering AMG315, a potent and more stable CB1 receptor ligand. Therefore in Specific Aim 1, similar to parent R01, using MENP nanoformulation (NF) we will administer AMG315, methanandamide (for comparison), or vehicle by i.v. route and assess whether AMG315 can mitigate inflammasome-mediated neuroinflammation in a bigenic mouse model of HIV and AD comorbidity, 3xTg/iTat. In Specific Aim 2, we will verify whether AMG315 can reduce amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary tangle burden and correlate with improved memory. Since we plan to test the AMG315 directly in a mouse model of HIV (iTAT) and AD (3xTg) and address three key questions in HIV/AD research, i.e., HIV and AD comorbidity, cannabinoid multitarget pathway, and efficient brain penetration, this administrative supplement request is directly related to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). If AMG315 has beneficial effects in the comorbidity model in this study, it may be further developed for clinical use in future studies.