Oligomeric Amyloid-β Inhibits the Proteolytic Conversion of Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), AMPA Receptor Trafficking, and Classical Conditioning

Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide is thought to have a significant role in the progressive memory loss observed in patients with Alzheimer disease and inhibits synaptic plasticity in animal models of learning. We previously demonstrated that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is critical for synaptic AMPA receptor delivery in an in vitro model of eyeblink classical conditioning. Here, we report that acquisition of conditioned responses was significantly attenuated by bath application of oligomeric (200 nm), but not fibrillar, Aβ peptide. Western blotting revealed that BDNF protein expression during conditioning is significantly reduced by treatment with oligomeric Aβ, as were phosphorylation levels of cAMP-response element-binding protein (CREB), Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CaMKIV), and ERK. However, levels of PKA and PKCζ/λ were unaffected, as was PDK-1. Protein localization studies using confocal imaging indicate that oligomeric Aβ, but not fibrillar or scrambled forms, suppresses colocalization of GluR1 and GluR4 AMPA receptor subunits with synaptophysin, indicating that trafficking of these subunits to synapses during the conditioning procedure is blocked. In contrast, coapplication of BDNF with oligomeric Aβ significantly reversed these findings. Interestingly, a tolloid-like metalloproteinase in turtle, tTLLs (turtle tolloid-like protein), which normally processes the precursor proBDNF into mature BDNF, was found to degrade oligomeric Aβ into small fragments. These data suggest that an Aβ-induced reduction in BDNF, perhaps due to interference in the proteolytic conversion of proBDNF to BDNF, results in inhibition of synaptic AMPA receptor delivery and suppression of the acquisition of conditioning.