Neurodegeneration


Neurodegeneration is the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, including death of neurons. Many neurodegenerative diseases – including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, fatal familial insomnia, and Huntington's disease – occur as a result of neurodegenerative processes. Such diseases are incurable, resulting in progressive degeneration and/or death of neurons. As research progresses, many similarities appear that relate these diseases to one another on a sub-cellular level. Discovering these similarities offers hope for therapeutic advances that could ameliorate many diseases simultaneously. There are many parallels between different neurodegenerative disorders including atypical protein assemblies as well as induced cell death. Neurodegeneration can be found in many different levels of neuronal circuitry ranging from molecular to systemic.

Specific disorders

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that results in the loss of neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex and certain subcortical structures, resulting in gross atrophy of the temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and parts of the frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus.
AD pathology is primarily characterized by the presence of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Plaques are made up of small peptides, typically 39–43 amino acids in length, called beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is a fragment from a larger protein called amyloid precursor protein, a transmembrane protein that penetrates through the neuron's membrane. APP appears to play roles in normal neuron growth, survival and post-injury repair. APP is cleaved into smaller fragments by enzymes such as gamma secretase and beta secretase. One of these fragments gives rise to fibrils of beta-amyloid which can self-assemble into the dense extracellular deposits known as senile plaques or amyloid plaques.

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. It typically manifests as bradykinesia, rigidity, resting tremor and posture instability. The crude prevalence rate of PD has been reported to range from 15 per 100,000 to 12,500 per 100,000, and the incidence of PD from 15 per 100,000 to 328 per 100,000, with the disease being less common in Asian countries.
PD is primarily characterized by death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain. The cause of this selective cell death is unknown. Notably, alpha-synuclein-ubiquitin complexes and aggregates are observed to accumulate in Lewy bodies within affected neurons. It is thought that defects in protein transport machinery and regulation, such as RAB1, may play a role in this disease mechanism. Impaired axonal transport of alpha-synuclein may also lead to its accumulation in Lewy bodies. Experiments have revealed reduced transport rates of both wild-type and two familial Parkinson's disease-associated mutant alpha-synucleins through axons of cultured neurons. Membrane damage by alpha-synuclein could be another Parkinson's disease mechanism.
The main known risk factor is age. Mutations in genes such as α-synuclein, leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, glucocerebrosidase, and tau protein can also cause hereditary PD or increase PD risk.

Huntington's disease

Huntington's disease is a rare autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutations in the huntingtin gene. HD is characterized by loss of medium spiny neurons and astrogliosis. The first brain region to be substantially affected is the striatum, followed by degeneration of the frontal and temporal cortices. The striatum's subthalamic nuclei send control signals to the globus pallidus, which initiates and modulates motion. The weaker signals from subthalamic nuclei thus cause reduced initiation and modulation of movement, resulting in the characteristic movements of the disorder, notably chorea.
HD is caused by polyglutamine tract expansion in the huntingtin gene, resulting in the aggregation-prone mutant huntingtin. mHtt aggregates may be directly toxic. Additionally, they may damage molecular motors and microtubules to interfere with normal retrograde transport along the axon, leading to impaired transport of important cargoes such as BDNF.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a disease in which motor neurons are selectively targeted for degeneration. In 1993, missense mutations in the gene encoding the antioxidant enzyme Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase 1 were discovered in a subsets of patients with familial ALS. This discovery led researchers to focus on unlocking the mechanisms for SOD1-mediated diseases. However, the pathogenic mechanism underlying SOD1 mutant toxicity has yet to be resolved. More recently, TDP-43 and FUS protein aggregates have been implicated in some cases of the disease, and a mutation in chromosome 9 is thought to be the most common known cause of sporadic ALS.
Recent independent research by Nagai et al. and Di Giorgio et al. provide in vitro evidence that the primary cellular sites where SOD1 mutations act are located on astrocytes. Astrocytes then cause the toxic effects on the motor neurons. The specific mechanism of toxicity still needs to be investigated, but the findings are significant because they implicate cells other than neuron cells in neurodegeneration.

Batten disease

Batten disease is a rare and fatal recessive neurodegenerative disorder that begins at birth.

Risk factor

The greatest risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases is aging. Mitochondrial DNA mutations as well as oxidative stress both contribute to aging. Many of these diseases are late-onset, meaning there is some factor that changes as a person ages for each disease. One constant factor is that in each disease, neurons gradually lose function as the disease progresses with age. It has been proposed that DNA damage accumulation provides the underlying causative link between aging and neurodegenerative disease. About 20-40% of healthy people between 60 and 78 years old experience discernable decrements in cognitive performance in several domains including working, spatial, and episodic memory, and processing speed.

Mechanisms

Genetics

Many neurodegenerative diseases are caused by genetic mutations, most of which are located in completely unrelated genes. In many of the different diseases, the mutated gene has a common feature: a repeat of the CAG nucleotide triplet. CAG codes for the amino acid glutamine. A repeat of CAG results in a polyglutamine tract. Diseases associated with such mutations are known as trinucleotide repeat disorders.
Polyglutamine repeats typically cause dominant pathogenesis. Extra glutamine residues can acquire toxic properties through a variety of ways, including irregular protein folding and degradation pathways, altered subcellular localization, and abnormal interactions with other cellular proteins. PolyQ studies often use a variety of animal models because there is such a clearly defined trigger – repeat expansion. Extensive research has been done using the models of nematode, and fruit fly, mice, and non-human primates.
Nine inherited neurodegenerative diseases are caused by the expansion of the CAG trinucleotide and polyQ tract, including Huntington's disease and the spinocerebellar ataxias.

Protein misfolding

Several neurodegenerative diseases are classified as proteopathies as they are associated with the aggregation of misfolded proteins.

Protein degradation pathways

disease and Huntington's disease are both late-onset and associated with the accumulation of intracellular toxic proteins. Diseases caused by the aggregation of proteins are known as proteinopathies, and they are primarily caused by aggregates in the following structures:
There are two main avenues eukaryotic cells use to remove troublesome proteins or organelles:
Damage to the membranes of organelles by monomeric or oligomeric proteins could also contribute to these diseases. Alpha-synuclein can damage membranes by inducing membrane curvature, and cause extensive tubulation and vesiculation when incubated with artificial phospholipid vesicles.

Mitochondrial dysfunction

The most common form of cell death in neurodegeneration is through the intrinsic mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. This pathway controls the activation of caspase-9 by regulating the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondrial intermembrane space. Reactive oxygen species are normal byproducts of mitochondrial respiratory chain activity. ROS concentration is mediated by mitochondrial antioxidants such as manganese superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. Over production of ROS is a central feature of all neurodegenerative disorders. In addition to the generation of ROS, mitochondria are also involved with life-sustaining functions including calcium homeostasis, PCD, mitochondrial fission and fusion, lipid concentration of the mitochondrial membranes, and the mitochondrial permeability transition. Mitochondrial disease leading to neurodegeneration is likely, at least on some level, to involve all of these functions.
There is strong evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress play a causal role in neurodegenerative disease pathogenesis, including in four of the more well known diseases Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Neurons are particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage due to their strong metabolic activity associated with high transcription levels, high oxygen consumption, and weak antioxidant defense.

DNA damage

The brain metabolizes as much as a fifth of consumed oxygen, and reactive oxygen species produced by oxidative metabolism are a major source of DNA damage in the brain. Damage to a cell’s DNA is particularly harmful because DNA is the blueprint for protein production and unlike other molecules it cannot simply be replaced by re-synthesis. The vulnerability of post-mitotic neurons to DNA damage, coupled with a gradual decline in the activities of repair mechanisms, could lead to accumulation of DNA damage with age and contribute to brain aging and neurodegeneration. DNA single-strand breaks are common and are associated with the neurodegenerative disease ataxia-oculomotor apraxia. Increased oxidative DNA damage in the brain is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Defective DNA repair has been linked to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ataxia telangiectasia, Cockayne syndrome, Parkinson’s disease and xeroderma pigmentosum.

Axonal transport

Axonal swelling, and axonal spheroids have been observed in many different neurodegenerative diseases. This suggests that defective axons are not only present in diseased neurons, but also that they may cause certain pathological insult due to accumulation of organelles. Axonal transport can be disrupted by a variety of mechanisms including damage to: kinesin and cytoplasmic dynein, microtubules, cargoes, and mitochondria. When axonal transport is severely disrupted a degenerative pathway known as Wallerian-like degeneration is often triggered.

Programmed cell death

is death of a cell in any form, mediated by an intracellular program. This process can be activated in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease, amytrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease. PCD observed in neurodegenerative diseases may be directly pathogenic; alternatively, PCD may occur in response to other injury or disease processes.

Apoptosis (type I)

is a form of programmed cell death in multicellular organisms. It is one of the main types of programmed cell death and involves a series of biochemical events leading to a characteristic cell morphology and death.
Caspases cleave at very specific amino acid residues. There are two types of caspases: initiators and effectors. Initiator caspases cleave inactive forms of effector caspases. This activates the effectors that in turn cleave other proteins resulting in apoptotic initiation.

Autophagic (type II)

Autophagy is a form of intracellular phagocytosis in which a cell actively consumes damaged organelles or misfolded proteins by encapsulating them into an autophagosome, which fuses with a lysosome to destroy the contents of the autophagosome. Because many neurodegenerative diseases show unusual protein aggregates, it is hypothesized that defects in autophagy could be a common mechanism of neurodegeneration.

Cytoplasmic (type III)

PCD can also occur via non-apoptotic processes, also known as Type III or cytoplasmic cell death. For example, type III PCD might be caused by trophotoxicity, or hyperactivation of trophic factor receptors. Cytotoxins that induce PCD can cause necrosis at low concentrations, or aponecrosis at higher concentrations. It is still unclear exactly what combination of apoptosis, non-apoptosis, and necrosis causes different kinds of aponecrosis.

Transglutaminase

s are human enzymes ubiquitously present in the human body and in the brain in particular.
The main function of transglutaminases is bind proteins and peptides intra- and intermolecularly, by a type of covalent bonds termed isopeptide bonds, in a reaction termed transamidation or crosslinking.
Transglutaminase binding of these proteins and peptides make them clump together. The resulting structures are turned extremely resistant to chemical and mechanical disruption.
Most relevant human neurodegenerative diseases share the property of having abnormal structures made up of proteins and peptides.
Each of these neurodegenerative disesases have one specific main protein or peptide. In Alzheimer's disease, these are amyloid-beta and tau. In Parkinson’s disease, it is alpha-synuclein. In Huntington’s disease, it is huntingtin.
Transglutaminase substrates:
Amyloid-beta, tau, alpha-synuclein and huntingtin have been proved to be substrates of transglutaminases in vitro or in vivo, that is, they can be bonded by trasglutaminases by covalent bonds to each other and potentially to any other transglutaminase substrate in the brain.
Transglutaminase augmented expression:
It has been proved that in these neurodegenerative diseases the expression of the transglutaminase enzyme is increased.
Presence of isopeptide bonds in these structures:
The presence of isopeptide bonds have been detected in the abnormal structures that are characteristic of these neurodegenerative diseases.
Co-localization:
Co-localization of transglutaminase mediated isopeptide bonds with these abnormal structures has been detected in the autopsy of brains of patients with these diseases.

Management

The process of neurodegeneration is not well understood, so the diseases that stem from it have, as yet, no cures.

Animal models in research

In the search for effective treatments, investigators employ animal models of disease to test potential therapeutic agents. Model organisms provide an inexpensive and relatively quick means to perform two main functions: target identification and target validation. Together, these help show the value of any specific therapeutic strategies and drugs when attempting to ameliorate disease severity. An example is the drug Dimebon by Medivation, Inc. In 2009 this drug was in phase III clinical trials for use in Alzheimer's disease, and also phase II clinical trials for use in Huntington's disease. In March 2010, the results of a clinical trial phase III were released; the investigational Alzheimer's disease drug Dimebon failed in the pivotal CONNECTION trial of patients with mild-to-moderate disease. With CONCERT, the remaining Pfizer and Medivation Phase III trial for Dimebon in Alzheimer's disease failed in 2012, effectively ending the development in this indication.
In another experiment using a rat model of Alzheimer's disease, it was demonstrated that systemic administration of offers neuroprotective effects and can prevent neurodegeneration in hippocampus amyloid-beta 25–35. This suggests that there could be therapeutic value to PRP-1.

Other avenues of investigation

Protein degradation offers therapeutic options both in preventing the synthesis and degradation of irregular proteins. There is also interest in upregulating autophagy to help clear protein aggregates implicated in neurodegeneration. Both of these options involve very complex pathways that we are only beginning to understand.
The goal of immunotherapy is to enhance aspects of the immune system. Both active and passive vaccinations have been proposed for Alzheimer's disease and other conditions; however, more research must be done to prove safety and efficacy in humans.
A current therapeutic target for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease is the protease β-secretase, which is involved in the amyloidogenic processing pathway that leads to the pathological accumulation of proteins in the brain. When the gene that encodes for amyloid precursor protein is spliced by α-secretase rather than β-secretase, the toxic protein β amyloid is not produced. Targeted inhibition of β-secretase can potentially prevent the neuronal death that is responsible for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.