Published online before print March 5, 2009

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(American Journal of Pathology. 2009;174:1481-1491.)
© 2009 American Society for Investigative Pathology
DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2009.081036

Hyperhomocysteinemia Increases β-Amyloid by Enhancing Expression of -Secretase and Phosphorylation of Amyloid Precursor Protein in Rat Brain

From the Department of Pathophysiology, Key Laboratory of Neurological Disease of Education Committee of China, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Hyperhomocysteinemia and β-amyloid (Aβ) overproduction are critical etiological and pathological factors in Alzheimer disease, respectively; however, the intrinsic link between them is still missing. Here, we found that Aβ levels increased and amyloid precursor protein (APP) levels simultaneously decreased in hyperhomocysteinemic rats after a 2-week induction by vena caudalis injection of homocysteine. Concurrently, both the mRNA and protein levels of presenilin-1, a component of -secretase, were elevated, whereas the expression levels of β-secretase and presenilin-2 were not altered. We also observed that levels of phosphorylated APP at threonine-668, a crucial site facilitating the amyloidogenic cleavage of APP, increased in rats with hyperhomocysteinemia, although the phosphorylation per se did not increase the binding capacity of pT668-APP to the secretases. The enhanced phosphorylation of APP in these rats was not relevant to either c-Jun N-terminal kinase or cyclin-dependent kinase-5. A prominent spatial memory deficit was detected in rats with hyperhomocysteinemia. Simultaneous supplementation of folate and vitamin-B12 attenuated the hyperhomocysteinemia-induced abnormal processing of APP and improved memory. Our data revealed that hyperhomocysteinemia could increase Aβ production through the enhanced expression of -secretase and APP phosphorylation, causing memory deficits that could be rescued by folate and vitamin-B12 treatment in these rats. It is suggested that hyperhomocysteinemia may serve as an upstream factor for increased Aβ production as seen in patients with Alzheimer disease.