Cited by 1,119Autophagy in Disease and TherapyAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsCalcium signaling and nucleotide metabolism

Autophagy Induction and Autophagosome Clearance in Neurons: Relationship to Autophagic Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease

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Boland, B., Kumar, A., Lee, S., Platt, F. M., Wegiel, J., Yu, W. H., Nixon, R. A.·2008·Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

Macroautophagy, a major pathway for organelle and protein turnover, has been implicated in the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The basis for the profuse accumulation of autophagic vacuoles (AVs) in affected neurons of the AD brain, however, is unknown. In this study, we show that constitutive macroautophagy in primary cortical neurons is highly efficient, because newly formed autophagosomes are rapidly cleared by fusion with lysosomes, accounting for their scarcity in the healthy brain. Even after macroautophagy is strongly induced by suppressing mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) kinase activity with rapamycin or nutrient deprivation, active cathepsin-positive autolysosomes rather than LC3-II-positive autophagosomes predominate, implying efficient autophagosome clearance in healthy neurons. In contrast, selectively impeding late steps in macroautophagy by inhibiting cathepsin-mediated proteolysis within autolysosomes with cysteine- and aspartyl-protease inhibitors caused a marked accumulation of electron-dense double-membrane-limited AVs, containing cathepsin D and incompletely degraded LC3-II in perikarya and neurites. Similar structures accumulated in large numbers when fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes was slowed by disrupting their transport on microtubules with vinblastine. Finally, we find that the autophagic vacuoles accumulating after protease inhibition or prolonged vinblastine treatment strongly resembled AVs that collect in dystrophic neurites in the AD brain and in an AD mouse model. We conclude that macroautophagy is constitutively active and highly efficient in healthy neurons and that the autophagic pathology observed in AD most likely arises from impaired clearance of AVs rather than strong autophagy induction alone. Therapeutic modulation of autophagy in AD may, therefore, require targeting late steps in the autophagic pathway.

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Crossref · 10.1523/jneurosci.0800-08.2008

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  • Baseline autophagy in neurons constitutively operates at a highly processive level, such that maturing autophagosomes are rapidly incorporated into autolysosomes, which represent the majority of the autophagic vesicle population after autophagy induction or flux inhibition.

    “Baseline autophagy in neurons constitutively operates at a highly processive level, such that maturing autophagosomes are rapidly incorporated into autolysosomes, which represent the majority of the autophagic vesicle population after autophagy induction or flux inhibition [379].”
  • Aβ is targeted for autophagy-dependent degradation within the lysosome, explaining why activation of autophagy reduces the burden of Aβ plaques in rodents.

    “Aβ is targeted for autophagy‐dependent degradation within the lysosome, explaining why activation of autophagy reduces the burden of Aβ plaques in rodents (Boland et al, 2008; Menzies et al, 2017; Meng et al, 2019).”

    From Autophagy in major human diseases (2021) · cites this paper as Boland et al, 2008

  • Disruption of autophagic flux and failure of autophagosomes to fuse with lysosomes leads to a build-up of vesicles seen in dystrophic neurites and cell bodies in AD, CBD and PSP, as well as in tauopathy models.

    “Disruption of autophagic flux and a failure of autophagosomes to fuse with lysosomes leads to a build-up of vesicles, which can be seen in dystrophic neurites and cell bodies in AD, CBD and PSP, as well as in tauopathy models73–76.”

    From Tau-targeting therapies for Alzheimer disease (2018) · cites this paper as [73]

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Authors
Boland, B., Kumar, A., Lee, S., Platt, F. M., Wegiel, J., Yu, W. H., & Nixon, R. A.
Affiliations
  • Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
  • University of Oxford (GB)
  • Columbia University (US)
Corresponding author
Boland, B.
Venue
Journal of Neuroscience
Published
2008-07-02
Volume
28
Issue
27
Pages
6926-6937
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
OpenAlex
W2128101513
Cited by
1,119
References
56
Citations by year
2026: 36 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 82 · 2020: 80 · 2019: 92 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 75 · 2016: 77 · 2015: 70 · 2014: 61 · 2013: 59 · 2012: 77
FWCI
36.39
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Alzheimer's Association
  • Wellcome Trust
  • National Institute on Aging (AG017617, P01AG017617)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Physiology › Calcium signaling and nucleotide metabolism
Keywords
macroautophagy, autophagosome clearance, autophagosomes, Alzheimer's disease, cortical neurons, cathepsin D, autolysosomes, mTOR inhibition, rapamycin, nutrient deprivation, cysteine protease inhibitors, aspartyl protease inhibitors, LC3-II, autophagosome-lysosome fusion, microtubule transport, dystrophic neurites, neurodegeneration
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Autophagy, Brain, Cathepsins, Cells, Cultured, Lysosomes, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Neurons, Peptide Hydrolases, Phagosomes, Protein Kinases, Vinblastine, Neurites, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Tubulin Modulators, Rats, TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases

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