Cell cycle events: outcomes measures in Alzheimer models

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative illness that affects nearly 4 million individuals in the USA alone. Understanding of the genetics, biochemistry and pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has advanced in recent years, but the biology of the neurodegeneration remains a mystery. Several AD mouse models have been developed. These near perfect 'genocopies' reproduce some of the pathological features of Alzheimer's disease, but they are imperfect 'phenocopies'. Among other things, they fail to reproduce the phenotype of neuronal cell death. Our lab and others have shown that neurons in populations at-risk for death in the human AD brain present evidence for re-entrance into a cell cycle. We have proposed that this attempt at mitosis is lethal for a neuron and is the proximal cause of the observed neurodegeneration in the human disease. Quantitative analysis of the number of neurons manifesting evidence of cell cycle events (CCEs) predicts a slow death, requiring many months. We now have preliminary evidence that despite the absence of nerve cell death the mouse models do initiate neuronal cell cycles in the appropriate populations. The progression of the disease through the various brain regions mimics the human condition and, significantly, a properly timed 3-month course of NSAID treatment blocks the appearance of the CCEs. In this revised application we propose to complete our description the natural history of the CCEs in 4 different AD mouse models, and to relate them to the other pathological disease markers (amyloid deposition, activated microglia etc.). As part of this aim we will test both hypoxia and immune challenge for their efficacy as a 'second hit' that drives the cycling neurons to die. Second, we will test the response of the CCEs to NSAIDS therapies that are currently being explored for use in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: ibuprofen, simvastatin and an new approach, GW3965, an agonist of the LXR receptor. We will initiate therapy both before and after the first appearance of the CCEs using different APR transgenes as well as genetic background as variables. The potential value of CCEs as a new outcome measure for use in preclinical AD trials is 5-fold: they are easy to detect; they are a neuronal phenotype; they have a conceptual link to neuronal cell death; they are found in both mouse and man; and they appear early in the disease course.