Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, London, SE5 9RX, UK.
Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32610, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 7;7(1):7434. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-07906-1.
Organotypic brain slice culture models provide an alternative to early stage in vivo studies as an integrated tissue system that can recapitulate key disease features, thereby providing an excellent platform for drug screening. We recently described a novel organotypic 3xTg-AD mouse brain slice culture model with key Alzheimer's disease-like changes. We now highlight the potential of this model for testing disease-modifying agents and show that results obtained following in vivo treatment are replicated in brain slice cultures from 3xTg-AD mice. Moreover, we describe novel effects of the amyloid-binding tetra (ethylene glycol) derivative of benzothiazole aniline, BTA-EG, on tau. BTA-EG significantly reduced tau phosphorylation in the absence of any changes in the amounts of amyloid precursor protein, amyloid-β or synaptic proteins. The reduction in tau phosphorylation was associated with inactivation of the Alzheimer's disease-relevant major tau kinase, GSK-3. These findings highlight the utility of 3xTg-AD brain slice cultures as a rapid and reliable in vitro method for drug screening prior to in vivo testing. Furthermore, we demonstrate novel tau-directed effects of BTA-EG that are likely related to the ability of this agent to inactivate GSK-3. Our findings support the further exploration of BTA-EG as a candidate therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease.
器官型脑片培养模型提供了一种替代早期体内研究的方法,作为一种可以重现关键疾病特征的整合组织系统,从而为药物筛选提供了极好的平台。我们最近描述了一种新型的具有阿尔茨海默病样变化的 3xTg-AD 小鼠器官型脑片培养模型。我们现在强调了该模型用于测试疾病修饰剂的潜力,并表明在 3xTg-AD 小鼠的脑片中复制了体内治疗后的结果。此外,我们还描述了苯并噻唑苯胺的四(乙二醇)衍生物 BTA-EG 对 tau 的新作用。BTA-EG 可显著降低 tau 磷酸化,而不会改变淀粉样前体蛋白、淀粉样蛋白-β 或突触蛋白的含量。tau 磷酸化的减少与阿尔茨海默病相关的主要 tau 激酶 GSK-3 的失活有关。这些发现突出了 3xTg-AD 脑片培养作为在体内试验之前进行药物筛选的快速可靠的体外方法的实用性。此外,我们证明了 BTA-EG 对 tau 的新作用,这可能与该药物失活 GSK-3 的能力有关。我们的发现支持进一步探索 BTA-EG 作为阿尔茨海默病的候选治疗药物。