Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative and irreversible disease wih its steady increase amongst the population raises an important public health issue. Until now, no treatment for the disease have been identified and most of the literature has been mostly bringing a neuron-centric centric approach. Although there is a literature showing the contribution of the BBB in the pathophysiology of the disease, studies investigating the contribution of genetic mutations associated with AD (e.g. APP, PSEN1, PSEN2…) on the BBB dysfunction remains anectodal. In this study, we investigated the effect of mutations in PSEN1 and PSEN2 on the BBB function, using iPSCs obtained from patients suffering from FAD. This study identified PSEN1, rather than PSEN2, as a possible gene important in the formation and maintenance of the BBB, as PSEN1-BMECs showed an overall worsened outcome than PSEN2-BMECs including formation of the BBB phenotype, glucose metabolism and mitochondrial function. Interestingly, such results correlated with previous findings reported by Searson and colleagues using an iPSC line sharing the same mutation in PSEN1 (35), as we both observed that PSEN1-BMECs BMECs showed poor barrier function (as measured by TEER and permeability with a paracellular marker), as well as a compromised activity. Furthermore, our group showed that MRP-mediated efflux in PSEN1-BMECs was also affected, as well as glucose metabolism (glucose uptake, glycolysis), as well as glucose metabolism, mitochondrial function and lysosomal acidification. Our study also suggests that this effect maybe restricted to PSEN1, as the phenotype observed with PSEN2 mutant was milder, although signs of impaired glucose metabolism, mitochondrial function and lysosomal acidification were reported by our group. A limitation of our approach is the limited number of iPSC lines available from patients with FAD at the time of publication. Hence, future studies are aimed to investigate and confirm our observation by the inclusion of additional cell lines from patients with mutations in APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2 respectively.
A particular feature observed in our study was the lower glucose uptake in both PSEN1 and PSEN2 iPSC lines compared to control. Such lower uptake was accompanied by a lack of response to GLUT inhibition by GTI, and by a much lower ECAR values and glycolytic capacity compared to controls. Although the overall expression of GLUT1 appeared unchanged, we cannot exclude a possible impaired GLUT1 activity due to instrisic factor. GLUT1 has been documented to have a particular interactions with Aβ, as a recent study by Zlokovic and colleagues reported a worsened outcome in AD transgenic mice crossed with Slc2a1+/- deficient mice (22). Hence, our future direction will be to further investigate the relationships and interactions between Aβ peptides and GLUT1.
The effect of PSEN1 and PSEN2 on the BBB maturation and maintenance is intruiging. Both proteins are known to be part of the γ-secretase complex, which ultimately drives the formation of Aβ peptides. In addition, a survey of the literature also identified γ-secretase as an important modulator of the WNT signaling pathway(36, 37). WNT signaling is an important pathway involved in the development and maintenance of the BBB (38, 39). At this point, we cannot restrict and determine if the impairment of the BBB by PSEN1 is driven by an increase in Aβ production, or by an impairment of the endogenous WNT signaling. A limitation of our study is the absence of documentation of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 production by our BMECs monolayers. Assessing differential secretion of these Aβ peptides between PSEN mutants and control iPSC lines could help us better understand the contribution of each of these pathways on the BBB.
Finally, we have reported an impaired mitochondrial function (as seen by JC-1 staining) and lysosomal acidification. These are two components playing essential roles in the maintenance of energy homeostasis as well as vesicular trafficking. These two features remains largely undocumented at the BBB despite their important contribution in neurological diseases. Thus, a better understanding on how PSENs impact these pathways may increase interests in understanding the contribution of these pathways on the BBB dysfunction during neurological diseases.