Oxidative modification of vesicular transporters in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Oxidative stress is one of the major characteristics in Alzheimer’s disease, and converging evidence indicates that cysteine S-nitrosylation might be related in AD pathology. My results demonstrated exogenous S-nitrosoglutathione was able to S-nitrosylate vAChT, vMAT2, vGluT1 and vGluT2. S-nitrosylation of these vesicular transporters inhibited the uptake of [3H]acetylcholine, [3H]dopamine and [3H]glutamate respectively. APP/PS1 transgenic mice were used to investigate neurotransmission dysfunctions of Alzheimer’s disease. Global protein S-nitrosylation was increased in the 9 and 12 month APP/PS1 mice. Further investigation demonstrated an increase of vAChT and vGluT1 S-nitrosylation in frontal cortex of 6, 9 and 12 month APP/PS1 mice and an increased vAChT and vGluT1 S-nitrosylation was found in hippocampus of 3 month APP/PS1 mice. These findings together suggest that S-nitrosylation of vesicular transporters inhibits the uptake of neurotransmitters, and S-nitrosylation of vAChT and might be associated with the neurotransmission dysfunction of acetylcholine and glutamate in Alzheimer’s disease.