Shreaya Chakroborty, Joyce Kim, Corinne Schneider, Christopher Jacobson, Jordi Molgó, and Grace E. Stutzmann
1. Department of Neuroscience, Rosalind Franklin University / The Chicago Medical School, 3333 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60064
2. CNRS, Institut de Neurobiologie Alfred Fessard, FRC2118, Laboratoire de Neurobiologie et Développement, UPR 3294, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-linked presenilin mutations result in pronounced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) calcium disruptions that occur prior to detectable histopathology and cognitive deficits. More subtly, these early AD-linked calcium alterations also reset neurophysiological homeostasis, such that calcium-dependent pre- and postsynaptic signaling appear functionally normal yet are actually operating under aberrant calcium signaling systems. In these 3xTg-AD mouse brains, upregulated RyR activity is associated with a shift towards synaptic depression, likely through a reduction in presynaptic vesicle stores and increased postsynaptic outward currents through SK2 channels. The deviant RyR-calcium involvement in the 3xTg-AD mice also compensates for an intrinsic predisposition for hippocampal LTD and reduced LTP. In this study we detail the impact of
disrupted ryanodine receptor (RyR)-mediated calcium stores on synaptic transmission properties, long term depression (LTD) and calcium-activated membrane channels of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in presymptomatic 3xTg-AD mice. Using electrophysiological recordings in young 3xTg-AD and NonTg hippocampal slices, we show that increased RyR-evoked calcium release in 3xTg-AD mice ‘normalizes’ an altered synaptic transmission system operating under a shifted homeostatic state that is not present in NonTg mice. In the process, we uncover compensatory signaling mechanisms recruited early in the disease process which counterbalance the disrupted RyR-calcium dynamics, namely increases in presynaptic spontaneous vesicle release, altered probability of vesicle release, and upregulated postsynaptic SK channel activity. As AD is increasingly recognized as a ‘synaptic disease’, calcium-mediated signaling alterations
may serve as a proximal trigger for the synaptic degradation driving the cognitive loss in AD.