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by Keyword: Dendritic spine

Colom-Cadena, M, Davies, C, Sirisi, S, Lee, JE, Simzer, EM, Tzioras, M, Querol-Vilaseca, M, Sánchez-Aced, E, Chang, YY, Holt, K, McGeachan, RI, Rose, J, Tulloch, J, Wilkins, L, Smith, C, Andrian, T, Belbin, O, Pujals, S, Horrocks, MH, Lleó, A, Spires-Jones, TL, (2023). Synaptic oligomeric tau in Alzheimer's disease - A potential culprit in the spread of tau pathology through the brain Neuron 111, 2170-+

In Alzheimer's disease, fibrillar tau pathology accumulates and spreads through the brain and synapses are lost. Evidence from mouse models indicates that tau spreads trans-synaptically from pre- to postsynapses and that oligomeric tau is synaptotoxic, but data on synaptic tau in human brain are scarce. Here we used sub-diffraction-limit microscopy to study synaptic tau accumulation in postmortem temporal and occipital cortices of human Alzheimer's and control donors. Oligomeric tau is present in pre- and postsynaptic terminals, even in areas without abundant fibrillar tau deposition. Furthermore, there is a higher proportion of oligomeric tau compared with phosphorylated or misfolded tau found at synaptic terminals. These data suggest that accumulation of oligomeric tau in synapses is an early event in pathogenesis and that tau pathology may progress through the brain via trans-synaptic spread in human disease. Thus, specifically reducing oligomeric tau at synapses may be a promising therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease.Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

JTD Keywords: accumulation, alpha-synuclein, array tomography, cognitive impairment, dendritic spines, mouse model, neurodegeneration, neurons, synapses, Alzheimer, Amyloid-beta, Synapse, Tau


Mendoza, MB, Gutierrez, S, Ortiz, R, Moreno, DF, Dermit, M, Dodel, M, Rebollo, E, Bosch, M, Mardakheh, FK, Gallego, C, (2021). The elongation factor eEF1A2 controls translation and actin dynamics in dendritic spines Science Signaling 14, eabf5594

Synaptic plasticity involves structural modifications in dendritic spines that are modulated by local protein synthesis and actin remodeling. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms that connect synaptic stimulation to these processes. We found that the phosphorylation of isoform-specific sites in eEF1A2-an essential translation elongation factor in neurons-is a key modulator of structural plasticity in dendritic spines. Expression of a nonphosphorylatable eEF1A2 mutant stimulated mRNA translation but reduced actin dynamics and spine density. By contrast, a phosphomimetic eEF1A2 mutant exhibited decreased association with F-actin and was inactive as a translation elongation factor. Activation of metabotropic glutamate receptor signaling triggered transient dissociation of eEF1A2 from its regulatory guanine exchange factor (GEF) protein in dendritic spines in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. We propose that eEF1A2 establishes a cross-talk mechanism that coordinates translation and actin dynamics during spine remodeling.

JTD Keywords: cytoskeleton, expression, f-actin, factor 1-alpha, factor 1a, messenger-rna, nucleotide exchange, protein-synthesis, synaptic plasticity, Actin cytoskeleton, Actins, Aminoacyl-transfer-rna, Dendritic spines, Neuronal plasticity, Neurons, Peptide elongation factor 1, Protein biosynthesis


Bosch, M., Castro, J., Sur, M., Hayashi, Y., (2017). Photomarking relocalization technique for correlated two-photon and electron microcopy imaging of single stimulated synapses Synapse Development - Methods and Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology) (ed. Poulopoulos , A.), Humana Press (New York, USA) 1538, 185-214

Synapses learn and remember by persistent modifications of their internal structures and composition but, due to their small size, it is difficult to observe these changes at the ultrastructural level in real time. Two-photon fluorescence microscopy (2PM) allows time-course live imaging of individual synapses but lacks ultrastructural resolution. Electron microscopy (EM) allows the ultrastructural imaging of subcellular components but cannot detect fluorescence and lacks temporal resolution. Here, we describe a combination of procedures designed to achieve the correlated imaging of the same individual synapse under both 2PM and EM. This technique permits the selective stimulation and live imaging of a single dendritic spine and the subsequent localization of the same spine in EM ultrathin serial sections. Landmarks created through a photomarking method based on the 2-photon-induced precipitation of an electrodense compound are used to unequivocally localize the stimulated synapse. This technique was developed to image, for the first time, the ultrastructure of the postsynaptic density in which long-term potentiation was selectively induced just seconds or minutes before, but it can be applied for the study of any biological process that requires the precise relocalization of micron-wide structures for their correlated imaging with 2PM and EM.

JTD Keywords: Correlated imaging, DAB, Dendritic spine, Photobranding, Photoetching, Photomarking, Postsynaptic density, Serial-section transmission electron microscopy, Synapse, Time-lapse live two-photon fluorescence microscopy