| First Author | Henderson BW | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Sci Signal | Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 587 | PubMed ID | 31239325 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:330072 | Mgi Id | MGI:6728376 |
| Doi | 10.1126/scisignal.aaw9318 | Citation | Henderson BW, et al. (2019) Pharmacologic inhibition of LIMK1 provides dendritic spine resilience against beta-amyloid. Sci Signal 12(587) |
| abstractText | Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapies predominantly focus on beta-amyloid (Abeta), but Abeta effects may be maximal before clinical symptoms appear. Downstream of Abeta, dendritic spine loss correlates most strongly with cognitive decline in AD. Rho-associated kinases (ROCK1 and ROCK2) regulate the actin cytoskeleton, and ROCK1 and ROCK2 protein abundances are increased in early AD. Here, we found that the increased abundance of ROCK1 in cultured primary rat hippocampal neurons reduced dendritic spine length through a myosin-based pathway, whereas the increased abundance of ROCK2 induced spine loss through the serine and threonine kinase LIMK1. Abeta42 oligomers can activate ROCKs. Here, using static imaging studies combined with multielectrode array analyses, we found that the ROCK2-LIMK1 pathway mediated Abeta42-induced spine degeneration and neuronal hyperexcitability. Live-cell microscopy revealed that pharmacologic inhibition of LIMK1 rendered dendritic spines resilient to Abeta42 oligomers. Treatment of hAPP mice with a LIMK1 inhibitor rescued Abeta-induced hippocampal spine loss and morphologic aberrations. Our data suggest that therapeutically targeting LIMK1 may provide dendritic spine resilience to Abeta and therefore may benefit cognitively normal patients that are at high risk for developing dementia. |
