TY - JOUR
T1 - An amyloid β 42-dependent deficit in anandamide mobilization is associated with cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease
AU - Jung, Kwang Mook
AU - Astarita, Giuseppe
AU - Yasar, Sevil
AU - Vasilevko, Vitaly
AU - Cribbs, David H.
AU - Head, Elizabeth
AU - Cotman, Carl W.
AU - Piomelli, Daniele
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from National Institute on Drug Abuse (ARRA to DP) and the Alzheimer's Association ( IIRG-08-92000 to K-MJ). The Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Neuropathology Core and the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders of the University of California, Irvine, are supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging ( P50 AG016573 and P01 AG00538 ). The contribution of the Agilent Technologies/University of California, Irvine Analytical Discovery Facility, Center for Drug Discovery is gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2012/8
Y1 - 2012/8
N2 - The endocannabinoids and their attending cannabinoid (CB) 1 receptors have been implicated in the control of cognition, but their possible roles in dementias are still unclear. In the present study, we used liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry to conduct an endocannabinoid-targeted lipidomic analysis of postmortem brain samples from 38 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 17 control subjects, matched for age and postmortem interval. The analysis revealed that midfrontal and temporal cortex tissue from AD patients contains, relative to control subjects, significantly lower levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide and its precursor 1-stearoyl, 2-docosahexaenoyl-sn-glycero-phosphoethanolamine-N-arachidonoyl (NArPE). No such difference was observed with the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol or 15 additional lipid species. In AD patients, but not in control subjects, statistically detectable positive correlations were found between (1) anandamide content in midfrontal cortex and scores of the Kendrick's Digit Copy test (p = 0.004, r = 0.81; n = 10), which measures speed of information processing; and (2) anandamide content in temporal cortex and scores of the Boston Naming test (p = 0.027, r = 0.52; n = 18), which assesses language facility. Furthermore, anandamide and NArPE levels in midfrontal cortex of the study subjects inversely correlated with levels of the neurotoxic amyloid peptide, amyloid β-protein (Aβ) 42, while showing no association with Aβ 40 levels, amyloid plaque load or tau protein phosphorylation. Finally, high endogenous levels of Aβ 42 in Swedish mutant form of amyloid precursor protein (APP SWE)/Neuro-2a cells directly reduced anandamide and NArPE concentrations in cells lysates. The results suggest that an Aβ 42-dependent impairment in brain anandamide mobilization contributes to cognitive dysfunction in AD.
AB - The endocannabinoids and their attending cannabinoid (CB) 1 receptors have been implicated in the control of cognition, but their possible roles in dementias are still unclear. In the present study, we used liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry to conduct an endocannabinoid-targeted lipidomic analysis of postmortem brain samples from 38 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 17 control subjects, matched for age and postmortem interval. The analysis revealed that midfrontal and temporal cortex tissue from AD patients contains, relative to control subjects, significantly lower levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide and its precursor 1-stearoyl, 2-docosahexaenoyl-sn-glycero-phosphoethanolamine-N-arachidonoyl (NArPE). No such difference was observed with the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol or 15 additional lipid species. In AD patients, but not in control subjects, statistically detectable positive correlations were found between (1) anandamide content in midfrontal cortex and scores of the Kendrick's Digit Copy test (p = 0.004, r = 0.81; n = 10), which measures speed of information processing; and (2) anandamide content in temporal cortex and scores of the Boston Naming test (p = 0.027, r = 0.52; n = 18), which assesses language facility. Furthermore, anandamide and NArPE levels in midfrontal cortex of the study subjects inversely correlated with levels of the neurotoxic amyloid peptide, amyloid β-protein (Aβ) 42, while showing no association with Aβ 40 levels, amyloid plaque load or tau protein phosphorylation. Finally, high endogenous levels of Aβ 42 in Swedish mutant form of amyloid precursor protein (APP SWE)/Neuro-2a cells directly reduced anandamide and NArPE concentrations in cells lysates. The results suggest that an Aβ 42-dependent impairment in brain anandamide mobilization contributes to cognitive dysfunction in AD.
KW - Alzheimer's disease
KW - Amyloid β
KW - Anandamide
KW - Cognitive dysfunction
KW - Endocannabinoid
KW - Human brain
KW - Lipidomics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84861859231&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84861859231&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.03.012
DO - 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.03.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 21546126
AN - SCOPUS:84861859231
SN - 0197-4580
VL - 33
SP - 1522
EP - 1532
JO - Neurobiology of aging
JF - Neurobiology of aging
IS - 8
ER -