Cited by 62Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsRNA modifications and cancerNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

Loss of the m6A methyltransferase METTL3 in monocyte-derived macrophages ameliorates Alzheimer’s disease pathology in mice

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Yin, Huilong, Ju, Zhuan, Zheng, Minhua, Zhang, Xiang, Zuo, Wenjie, Wang, Yidi, Ding, Xiaochen, Zhang, Xiaofang +4 more·2023·PLOS Biology

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a heterogeneous disease with complex clinicopathological characteristics. To date, the role of m6A RNA methylation in monocyte-derived macrophages involved in the progression of AD is unknown. In our study, we found that methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) deficiency in monocyte-derived macrophages improved cognitive function in an amyloid beta (Aβ)-induced AD mouse model. The mechanistic study showed that that METTL3 ablation attenuated the m6A modification in DNA methyltransferase 3A ( Dnmt3a ) mRNAs and consequently impaired YTH N6-methyladenosine RNA binding protein 1 (YTHDF1)-mediated translation of DNMT3A. We identified that DNMT3A bound to the promoter region of alpha-tubulin acetyltransferase 1 ( Atat1 ) and maintained its expression. METTL3 depletion resulted in the down-regulation of ATAT1, reduced acetylation of α-tubulin and subsequently enhanced migration of monocyte-derived macrophages and Aβ clearance, which led to the alleviated symptoms of AD. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that m6A methylation could be a promising target for the treatment of AD in the future.

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  • Conditional knockout of METTL3 in microglia attenuated inflammation and Aβ accumulation in a mouse model based on Aβ injection.

    “indeed a recent study observed that conditional knockout of METTL3 in microglia attenuated inflammation and Aβ accumulation in a mouse model based on Aβ injection (Yin et al., 2023).”

    From β-amyloid accumulation enhances microtubule associated protein tau pathology in an APPNL-G-F/MAPTP301S mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (2024) · cites this paper as Yin et al., 2023

    The Results section on Aβ clearance (page not available) reports significantly lower cortical amyloid burden in Aβ-injected mice with METTL3 depletion. But the study attributes this effect to monocyte-derived macrophages, not a microglia-specific knockout. The passages found do not report that inflammation was attenuated. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Authors
Yin, H., Ju, Z., Zheng, M., Zhang, X., Zuo, W., Wang, Y., Ding, X., Zhang, X., Peng, Y., Li, J., Yang, A., & Zhang, R.
Affiliations
  • State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology (CN)
  • Henan Medical University (CN)
  • Xijing Hospital (CN)
Corresponding author
  • Yang, Angang
  • Zhang, Rui
Venue
PLOS Biology
Published
2023-03-07
Volume
21
Issue
3
Pages
e3002017
ISSN
  • 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
  • 1545-7885
OpenAlex
W4323347862
Cited by
62
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 10
FWCI
11.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31801128, 81630069, 31771439, 82173046, 82173162)
  • Program for Ph.D. Starting Research Funding from Xinxiang Medical University (505249)
  • National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC1303200)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA modifications and cancer
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, m6A RNA methylation, METTL3, monocyte-derived macrophages, DNMT3A, YTHDF1, alpha-tubulin acetylation, amyloid-beta, macrophage migration, amyloid clearance, cognitive function
MeSH terms
Acetylation, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Macrophages, Methyltransferases, Amyloid beta-Peptides, Mice

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