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Anomalous binding of radiolabeled oligonucleotide probes to plaques and tangles in Alzheimer disease hippocampus

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Molecular and Chemical Neuropathology

Abstract

Several reports indicate that Alzheimer disease (AD) brain contains elevated levels of heat shock 70 proteins. To determine the cellular localization of the heat shock 70mRNAs, specific oligonucleotide probes werein situ hybridized to AD and control brains. When oligonucleotides werein situ hybridized to brain sections with no AD neuropathology, hybridization was cell-specific and prior ribonuclease (RNase) treatment of adjacent sections resulted in no hybridization signal. However,in situ hybridization to AD hippocampus resulted in heavy grain deposition over senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Despite altering a number of experimental variables, we observed a similar pattern of grain deposition with most of the oligonucleotides tested, including one oligonucleotide specific for glutamic acid decarboxylase mRNA.In situ hybridization with either an RNA probe for glutamic acid decarboxylase or an oligonucleotide probe specific for 18S rRNA did not show this pattern of grain deposition. In control studies a sense hsc70 oligonucleotide showed no grain deposition in either cerebellum or hippocampus. Sections from AD hippocampus pretreated with RNase prior toin situ hybridization demonstrated enhanced grain deposition with the majority of probes tested. Anomalousin situ hybridization to AD hippocampus was usually eliminated by removing formamide from the posthybridization weshes, although post-RNase sticking often remained intense. These findings indicate that artifactual probe binding to senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles may complicate the analysis ofin situ hybridization studies using oligonucleotide probes to determine mRNA distribution in AD brain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., 75235-9115, Dallas, TX

    Sibile Pardue & Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad

  2. Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., 75235-9115, Dallas, TX

    Charles L. White & Eilleen H. Bigio

  3. Department of Biochemistry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., 75235-9115, Dallas, TX

    Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad

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  1. Sibile Pardue
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  4. Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad
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Pardue, S., White, C.L., Bigio, E.H. et al. Anomalous binding of radiolabeled oligonucleotide probes to plaques and tangles in Alzheimer disease hippocampus. Molecular and Chemical Neuropathology 22, 1–24 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03160091

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