Chronic rapamycin treatment in symptomatic Alzheimer's disease mice restored cerebral blood flow and vascular density, reduced amyloid burden, and improved cognitive function via NOS activation.
Does chronic rapamycin treatment restore brain vascular integrity and improve memory in symptomatic hAPP mice modeling Alzheimer's disease?
Chronic rapamycin treatment restores brain vascular integrity and cognitive function in symptomatic Alzheimer's disease mouse models through eNOS activation.
Vascular pathology is a major feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. We recently showed that chronic administration of the target-of-rapamycin (TOR) inhibitor rapamycin, which extends lifespan and delays aging, halts the progression of AD-like disease in transgenic human (h)APP mice modeling AD when administered before disease onset. Here we demonstrate that chronic reduction of TOR activity by rapamycin treatment started after disease onset restored cerebral blood flow (CBF) and brain vascular density, reduced cerebral amyloid angiopathy and microhemorrhages, decreased amyloid burden, and improved cognitive function in symptomatic hAPP (AD) mice. Like acetylcholine (ACh), a potent vasodilator, acute rapamycin treatment induced the phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) and NO release in brain endothelium. Administration of the NOS inhibitor L-NG-Nitroarginine methyl ester reversed vasodilation as well as the protective effects of rapamycin on CBF and vasculature integrity, indicating that rapamycin preserves vascular density and CBF in AD mouse brains through NOS activation. Taken together, our data suggest that chronic reduction of TOR activity by rapamycin blocked the progression of AD-like cognitive and histopathological deficits by preserving brain vascular integrity and function. Drugs that inhibit the TOR pathway may have promise as a therapy for AD and possibly for vascular dementias.
Lin et al. (Wed,) conducted a other in Alzheimer's disease. Rapamycin was evaluated on Cerebral blood flow, brain vascular density, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, microhemorrhages, amyloid burden, and cognitive function. Chronic rapamycin treatment in symptomatic Alzheimer's disease mice restored cerebral blood flow and vascular density, reduced amyloid burden, and improved cognitive function via NOS activation.