by Keyword: Dendritic spines
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
