Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative brain pathology and the most common form of dementia. Evidence suggests that extracellular vesicles (EVs) containing cytokines and microRNA are involved in inflammation regulation. The current study aimed to explore a potential impact of AD patients’ EVs on disease progression. Blood samples were collected after obtaining signed informed consent (No. 0462-14-RMB) from 42 AD patients at three stages of disease severity and from 19 healthy controls (HC). EV size and concentration were studied by nanotracking analysis. EV membrane antigens were defined by flow cytometry and Western blot; EV protein contents were screened by protein array; the miRNA content was screened by nanostring technology and validated by RT-PCR. HC and AD patients’ EVs consisted of a mixture of small (< 100 nm) and larger vesicles. The myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) expression on EVs correlated with disease severity. EVs of patients with moderate and severe AD had significantly higher levels of MOG, compared with mild AD patients. Levels of EVs expressing the axonal glycoprotein CD171 were significantly higher in severe AD patients than in HC. Increase in endothelial EVs was observed in AD patients. An above twofold increase was found in the content of inflammatory cytokines and > 50% decrease in growth factors in AD patients’ EVs compared with HC-EVs. Levels of let-7g-5p, miR126-3p, miR142-3p, miR-146a-5p, and mir223-3p correlated with disease severity. Neural damage, specific miRNA downregulation, and inflammatory cytokine upregulation, found in patients’ EVs, might be used as a biomarker reflecting AD severity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aggarwal NT, Shah RC, Bennett DA (2015) Alzheimer’s disease: unique markers for diagnosis & new treatment modalities. Indian J Med Res 142:369–382
Bloom GS (2014) Amyloid-beta and tau: the trigger and bullet in Alzheimer disease pathogenesis. JAMA Neurol 71:505–508
Minter MR, Taylor JM, Crack PJ (2016) The contribution of neuroinflammation to amyloid toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease. J Neurochem 136:457–474
Battistelli M, Falcieri E (2020) Apoptotic bodies: particular extracellular vesicles involved in intercellular communication. Biology 9
Fruhbeis C, Frohlich D, Kuo WP, Kramer-Albers EM (2013) Extracellular vesicles as mediators of neuron-glia communication. Front Cell Neurosci 7:182
Ambros V, Lee RC (2004) Identification of microRNAs and other tiny noncoding RNAs by cDNA cloning. Methods Mol Biol 265:131–158
Simak J, Gelderman MP (2006) Cell membrane microparticles in blood and blood products: potentially pathogenic agents and diagnostic markers. Transfus Med Rev 20:1–26
Becker A, Thakur BK, Weiss JM, Kim HS, Peinado H, Lyden D (2016) Extracellular vesicles in cancer: cell-to-cell mediators of metastasis. Cancer Cell 30:836–848
Yang Y, Boza-Serrano A, Dunning CJR, Clausen BH, Lambertsen KL, Deierborg T (2018) Inflammation leads to distinct populations of extracellular vesicles from microglia. J Neuroinflammation 15:168
Yamamoto S, Niida S, Azuma E, Yanagibashi T, Muramatsu M, Huang TT, Sagara H, Higaki S et al (2015) Inflammation-induced endothelial cell-derived extracellular vesicles modulate the cellular status of pericytes. Sci Rep 5:8505
Couch Y, Akbar N, Davis S, Fischer R, Dickens AM, Neuhaus AA, Burgess AI, Rothwell PM et al (2017) Inflammatory stroke extracellular vesicles induce macrophage activation. Stroke 48:2292–2296
Abels ER, Breakefield XO (2016) Introduction to extracellular vesicles: biogenesis, RNA cargo selection, content, release, and uptake. Cell Mol Neurobiol 36:301–312
Budnik V, Ruiz-Canada C, Wendler F (2016) Extracellular vesicles round off communication in the nervous system. Nat Rev Neurosci 17:160–172
Perez-Gonzalez R, Gauthier SA, Kumar A, Levy E (2012) The exosome secretory pathway transports amyloid precursor protein carboxyl-terminal fragments from the cell into the brain extracellular space. J Biol Chem 287:43108–43115
Agliardi C, Clerici M (2020) Blood extracellular vesicles (EVs) of central nervous system origin: a window into the brain. Neural Regen Res 15:55–56
Bianco F, Pravettoni E, Colombo A, Schenk U, Moller T, Matteoli M, Verderio C (2005) Astrocyte-derived ATP induces vesicle shedding and IL-1 beta release from microglia. J Immunol 174:7268–7277
Schiera G, Di Liegro CM, Di Liegro I (2015) Extracellular membrane vesicles as vehicles for brain cell-to-cell interactions in physiological as well as pathological conditions. Biomed Res Int 2015:152926
Croese T, Furlan R (2018) Extracellular vesicles in neurodegenerative diseases. Mol Asp Med 60:52–61
Lugli G, Cohen AM, Bennett DA, Shah RC, Fields CJ, Hernandez AG, Smalheiser NR (2015) Plasma exosomal miRNAs in persons with and without Alzheimer disease: altered expression and prospects for biomarkers. PLoS One 10:e0139233
Rajendran L, Honsho M, Zahn TR, Keller P, Geiger KD, Verkade P, Simons K (2006) Alzheimer’s disease beta-amyloid peptides are released in association with exosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103:11172–11177
Yuyama K, Sun H, Usuki S, Sakai S, Hanamatsu H, Mioka T, Kimura N, Okada M et al (2015) A potential function for neuronal exosomes: sequestering intracerebral amyloid-beta peptide. FEBS Lett 589:84–88
Saman S, Kim W, Raya M, Visnick Y, Miro S, Jackson B, McKee AC, Alvarez VE et al (2012) Exosome-associated tau is secreted in tauopathy models and is selectively phosphorylated in cerebrospinal fluid in early Alzheimer disease. J Biol Chem 287:3842–3849
Thery C, Amigorena S, Raposo G, Clayton A (2006) Isolation and characterization of exosomes from cell culture supernatants and biological fluids. Current protocols in cell biology Chapter 3, Unit 3 22
Ender F, Zamzow P, Bubnoff NV, Gieseler F (2019) Detection and quantification of extracellular vesicles via FACS: membrane labeling matters! Int J Mol Sci 21
Kowal J, Arras G, Colombo M, Jouve M, Morath JP, Primdal-Bengtson B, Dingli F, Loew D et al (2016) Proteomic comparison defines novel markers to characterize heterogeneous populations of extracellular vesicle subtypes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113:E968–E977
Yuana Y, Boing AN, Grootemaat AE, van der Pol E, Hau CM, Cizmar P, Buhr E, Sturk A et al (2015) Handling and storage of human body fluids for analysis of extracellular vesicles. J Extracellular Vesicles 4:29260
Lorincz AM, Timar CI, Marosvari KA, Veres DS, Otrokocsi L, Kittel A, Ligeti E (2014) Effect of storage on physical and functional properties of extracellular vesicles derived from neutrophilic granulocytes. J Extracellular Vesicles 3:25465
Gardiner C, Ferreira YJ, Dragovic RA, Redman CW, Sargent IL (2013) Extracellular vesicle sizing and enumeration by nanoparticle tracking analysis. J Extracellular Vesicles 2
Hosseinzadeh S, Zahmatkesh M, Zarrindast MR, Hassanzadeh GR, Karimian M, Sarrafnejad A (2013) Elevated CSF and plasma microparticles in a rat model of streptozotocin-induced cognitive impairment. Behav Brain Res 256:503–511
Andreu Z, Yanez-Mo M (2014) Tetraspanins in extracellular vesicle formation and function. Front Immunol 5:442
Katzenell S, Shomer E, Zipori Y, Zylberfisz A, Brenner B, Aharon A (2012) Characterization of negatively charged phospholipids and cell origin of microparticles in women with gestational vascular complications. Thromb Res 130:479–484
Ramanathan S, Dale RC, Brilot F (2016) Anti-MOG antibody: the history, clinical phenotype, and pathogenicity of a serum biomarker for demyelination. Autoimmun Rev 15:307–324
Wang C, Yang B, Fang D, Zeng H, Chen X, Peng G, Cheng Q, Liang G (2018) The impact of SNAP25 on brain functional connectivity density and working memory in ADHD. Biol Psychol 138:35–40
Inaguma S, Wang Z, Lasota JP, Miettinen MM (2016) Expression of neural cell adhesion molecule L1 (CD171) in neuroectodermal and other tumors: An immunohistochemical study of 5155 tumors and critical evaluation of CD171 prognostic value in gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Oncotarget 7:55276–55289
Akiyama H, Nishimura T, Kondo H, Ikeda K, Hayashi Y, McGeer PL (1994) Expression of the receptor for macrophage colony stimulating factor by brain microglia and its upregulation in brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Brain Res 639:171–174
Rodosthenous RS, Coull BA, Lu Q, Vokonas PS, Schwartz JD, Baccarelli AA (2016) Ambient particulate matter and microRNAs in extracellular vesicles: a pilot study of older individuals. Part Fibre Toxicol 13:13
Vlachos IS, Kostoulas N, Vergoulis T, Georgakilas G, Reczko M, Maragkakis M, Paraskevopoulou MD, Prionidis K et al (2012) DIANA miRPath v.2.0: investigating the combinatorial effect of microRNAs in pathways. Nucleic Acids Res 40:W498–W504
Lea J, Sharma R, Yang F, Zhu H, Ward ES, Schroit AJ (2017) Detection of phosphatidylserine-positive exosomes as a diagnostic marker for ovarian malignancies: a proof of concept study. Oncotarget 8:14395–14407
Colombo E, Borgiani B, Verderio C, Furlan R (2012) Microvesicles: novel biomarkers for neurological disorders. Front Physiol 3:63
Liebner S, Dijkhuizen RM, Reiss Y, Plate KH, Agalliu D, Constantin G (2018) Functional morphology of the blood-brain barrier in health and disease. Acta Neuropathol 135:311–336
Piccin A, Murphy WG, Smith OP (2007) Circulating microparticles: pathophysiology and clinical implications. Blood Rev 21:157–171
Peschl P, Bradl M, Hoftberger R, Berger T, Reindl M (2017) Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein: deciphering a target in inflammatory demyelinating diseases. Front Immunol 8:529
Nasrabady SE, Rizvi B, Goldman JE, Brickman AM (2018) White matter changes in Alzheimer’s disease: a focus on myelin and oligodendrocytes. Acta Neuropathol Commun 6:22
Zhan X, Jickling GC, Ander BP, Liu D, Stamova B, Cox C, Jin LW, DeCarli C et al (2014) Myelin injury and degraded myelin vesicles in Alzheimer’s disease. Curr Alzheimer Res 11:232–238
Caso F, Agosta F, Filippi M (2016) Insights into white matter damage in Alzheimer’s disease: from postmortem to in vivo diffusion tensor MRI studies. Neurodegener Dis 16:26–33
McAleese KE, Walker L, Graham S, Moya ELJ, Johnson M, Erskine D, Colloby SJ, Dey M et al (2017) Parietal white matter lesions in Alzheimer’s disease are associated with cortical neurodegenerative pathology, but not with small vessel disease. Acta Neuropathol 134:459–473
Samatov TR, Wicklein D, Tonevitsky AG (2016) L1CAM: cell adhesion and more. Prog Histochem Cytochem 51:25–32
Rathjen FG, Schachner M (1984) Immunocytological and biochemical characterization of a new neuronal cell surface component (L1 antigen) which is involved in cell adhesion. EMBO J 3:1–10
Xue S, Cai X, Li W, Zhang Z, Dong W, Hui G (2012) Elevated plasma endothelial microparticles in Alzheimer’s disease. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 34:174–180
Sagare AP, Bell RD, Zlokovic BV (2013) Neurovascular defects and faulty amyloid-beta vascular clearance in Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimer’s Dis 33(Suppl 1):S87–S100
Toledo JB, Arnold SE, Raible K, Brettschneider J, Xie SX, Grossman M, Monsell SE, Kukull WA et al (2013) Contribution of cerebrovascular disease in autopsy confirmed neurodegenerative disease cases in the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Centre. Brain J Neurol 136:2697–2706
Yamazaki Y, Kanekiyo T (2017) Blood-brain barrier dysfunction and the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Int J Mol Sci 18
Aharon A, Tamari T, Brenner B (2008) Monocyte-derived microparticles and exosomes induce procoagulant and apoptotic effects on endothelial cells. Thromb Haemost 100:878–885
Jin K, Sun Y, Xie L, Batteur S, Mao XO, Smelick C, Logvinova A, Greenberg DA (2003) Neurogenesis and aging: FGF-2 and HB-EGF restore neurogenesis in hippocampus and subventricular zone of aged mice. Aging Cell 2:175–183
Lim NS, Swanson CR, Cherng HR, Unger TL, Xie SX, Weintraub D, Marek K, Stern MB et al (2016) Plasma EGF and cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Ann Clin Transl Neurol 3:346–355
Guo H, Xia D, Liao S, Niu B, Tang J, Hu H, Qian H, Cao B (2019) Vascular endothelial growth factor improves the cognitive decline of Alzheimer’s disease via concurrently inducing the expression of ADAM10 and reducing the expression of beta-site APP cleaving enzyme 1 in Tg2576 mice. Neurosci Res 142:49–57
Asahina M, Yoshiyama Y, Hattori T (2001) Expression of matrix metalloproteinase-9 and urinary-type plasminogen activator in Alzheimer’s disease brain. Clin Neuropathol 20:60–63
Miners JS, Schulz I, Love S (2018) Differing associations between Abeta accumulation, hypoperfusion, blood-brain barrier dysfunction and loss of PDGFRB pericyte marker in the precuneus and parietal white matter in Alzheimer’s disease. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 38:103–115
Kissel K, Berber S, Nockher A, Santoso S, Bein G, Hackstein H (2006) Human platelets target dendritic cell differentiation and production of proinflammatory cytokines. Transfusion 46:818–827
Wang WY, Tan MS, Yu JT, Tan L (2015) Role of pro-inflammatory cytokines released from microglia in Alzheimer’s disease. Ann Transl Med 3:136
Willenborg DO, Fordham S, Bernard CC, Cowden WB, Ramshaw IA (1996) IFN-gamma plays a critical down-regulatory role in the induction and effector phase of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-induced autoimmune encephalomyelitis. J Immunol 157:3223–3227
Zhang C (2008) The role of inflammatory cytokines in endothelial dysfunction. Basic Res Cardiol 103:398–406
Vercruysse P, Vieau D, Blum D, Petersen A, Dupuis L (2018) Hypothalamic alterations in neurodegenerative diseases and their relation to abnormal energy metabolism. Front Mol Neurosci 11:2
Kumar P, Dezso Z, MacKenzie C, Oestreicher J, Agoulnik S, Byrne M, Bernier F, Yanagimachi M et al (2013) Circulating miRNA biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. PLoS One 8:e69807
Jia LH, Liu YN (2016) Downregulated serum miR-223 servers as biomarker in Alzheimer’s disease. Cell Biochem Funct 34:233–237
Dong H, Li J, Huang L, Chen X, Li D, Wang T, Hu C, Xu J et al (2015) Serum microRNA profiles serve as novel biomarkers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Dis Markers 2015:625659
Krstic D, Knuesel I (2013) Deciphering the mechanism underlying late-onset Alzheimer disease. Nat Rev Neurol 9:25–34
Liu Y, Song X, Meng S, Jiang M (2016) Downregulated expression of miR-142-3p in macrophages contributes to increased IL-6 levels in aged mice. Mol Immunol 80:11–16
Wang H, Zhang Y, Wu X, Wang Y, Cui H, Li X, Zhang J, Tun N et al (2018) Regulation of human natural killer cell IFN-gamma production by microRNA-146a via targeting the NF-kappaB signaling pathway. Front Immunol 9:293
Zhang N, Fu L, Bu Y, Yao Y, Wang Y (2017) Downregulated expression of miR-223 promotes toll-like receptor-activated inflammatory responses in macrophages by targeting RhoB. Mol Immunol 91:42–48
Wang YS, Hsi E, Cheng HY, Hsu SH, Liao YC, Juo SH (2017) Let-7g suppresses both canonical and non-canonical NF-kappaB pathways in macrophages leading to anti-atherosclerosis. Oncotarget 8:101026–101041
Absalon S, Kochanek DM, Raghavan V, Krichevsky AM (2013) MiR-26b, upregulated in Alzheimer’s disease, activates cell cycle entry, tau-phosphorylation, and apoptosis in postmitotic neurons. J Neurosci 33:14645–14659
Wattmo C, Wallin AK (2017) Early- versus late-onset Alzheimer’s disease in clinical practice: cognitive and global outcomes over 3 years. Alzheimers Res Ther 9:70
Maas SL, de Vrij J, van der Vlist EJ, Geragousian B, van Bloois L, Mastrobattista E, Schiffelers RM, Wauben MH et al (2015) Possibilities and limitations of current technologies for quantification of biological extracellular vesicles and synthetic mimics. J Control Release Off J Control Release Soc 200:87–96
Szatanek R, Baj-Krzyworzeka M, Zimoch J, Lekka M, Siedlar M, Baran J (2017) The methods of choice for extracellular vesicles (EVs) characterization. Int J Mol Sci 18
Malishkevich A, Marshall GA, Schultz AP, Sperling RA, Aharon-Peretz J, Gozes I (2016) Blood-borne activity-dependent neuroprotective protein (ADNP) is correlated with premorbid intelligence, clinical stage, and Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers. J Alzheimer's Dis 50:249–260
Guo S, Perets N, Betzer O, Ben-Shaul S, Sheinin A, Michaelevski I, Popovtzer R, Offen D et al (2019) Intranasal delivery of mesenchymal stem cell derived exosomes loaded with phosphatase and tensin homolog siRNA repairs complete spinal cord injury. ACS Nano 13:10015–10028
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel (Approval No. 0462-14-RMB). The study participants were recruited after signing an informed consent form
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Western blot EV-pellet (isolated from 300 μl PPP) was loaded and separated on 12% acrylamide gel and then transferred to immune blot-PVDF membrane (Bio-Rad, Herculs CA, USA). This was followed by immunoblotting with the appropriate antibodies: mouse monoclonal anti human-CD81 and CD63 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA, USA), or with anti-calnexin (abcam). After incubation with the primary antibody, the membranes were washed and incubated with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugated secondary antibodies (Cell Signaling Technology, Massachusetts, USA). (Santa Cruz). Then, a chemiluminescence kit (EZ-ECL, Biological industrial, Israel) was used to detect the fluorescence. The western blot (WB) assay results were quantified using myECL™ Imager and analyzed using MyImageAnalysis Software (both from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA USA).
ESM 1
Representative gels images with molecular weight marker (MWM) and representative samples of each study cohort (a). and graphs summarizing the bend density of CD63 (c2) and CD81 (c3). (JPG 595 kb)
ESM 2
(DOCX 15 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aharon, A., Spector, P., Ahmad, R.S. et al. Extracellular Vesicles of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients as a Biomarker for Disease Progression. Mol Neurobiol 57, 4156–4169 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-020-02013-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-020-02013-1