Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, which is characterized by formation of amyloid plaques in the brain. The major constituent of these plaques is the hydrophobic peptide Aβ. Aβ accumulation is considered to be the main cause of the pathology seen in AD brains. Aβ is produced through sequential cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). APP can be processed by two different enzymatic pathways. Formation of Aβ requires cleavage of APP by β- and γ-secretase. However, most proteolytic processing of APP does not result in Aβ formation. Instead, APP is mainly cleaved by α-secretase, which not only precludes formation of the toxic Aβ peptide but also generates the neuroprotective sAPPα fragment. Increasing the α-secretase processing of APP is thereby a potential therapeutic strategy for AD. APP is a member of a conserved gene family, also including the APP-like proteins-1 and -2 (APLP1 and APLP2). The APP family members have essential and overlapping functions and have been reported to be processed in a similar way by the same enzymes. The processing of all APP family members is increased in response to several stimuli, including retinoic acid (RA) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which also induce a shift towards α-secretase processing. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the mechanisms and signaling involved in induced α-secretase processing of the APP family. The main α-secretase candidates are ADAM10 and TACE. In this thesis we wanted to study the effects on expression levels of ADAM10 and TACE during RA treatment. We also wanted to investigate the mechanism behind IGF-1-induced processing of APP and APLP2. We found that both ADAM10 and TACE are up-regulated in response to RA, but that the signaling pathways involved differed between the two enzymes. Similarly, we showed that IGF-1-induced processing of APLP2, but not of APP, is dependent on PKC. Furthermore, we showed that ADAM10 is the main α-secretase for APP, whereas TACE cleaves APLP2 in response to IGF-1. We conclude that although APP and APLP2 proteolytic processing are induced by the same stimuli, the processing is dependent on different signaling pathways and processing enzymes, which in turn are differentially regulated.

The amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) has been widely studied due to its role in Alzheimer´s disease (AD). When APP is sequentially cleaved by β- and γ-secretase, amyloid-β (Aβ) is formed. Aβ is prone to aggregate and is toxic to neurons. However, the main processing pathway for APP involves initial cleavage at the α-site, within the Aβ region, instead generating a neuroprotective soluble fragment, sAPPα. APP is a member of a protein family, also including the proteins APLP1 and APLP2, which are processed in a similar way as APP. In addition, K/O studies in mice have shown that the three proteins have overlapping functions where APLP2 play a key physiological role. The aim of this thesis was to study mechanisms underlying the α-secretase processing of APP and APLP2. We have used the human neuroblastoma cell-line SH-SY5Y as a model system and stimulated α-secretase processing with insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) or retinoic acid (RA). Our results show that the stimulated α-site cleavage of APP and APLP2 is regulated by different signaling pathways and that the cleavage is mediated by different enzymes. APP was shown to be cleaved by ADAM10 in a PI3K-dependent manner, whereas APLP2 was cleaved by TACE in a PKC-dependent manner. We further show that protein levels and maturation of ADAM10 and TACE is increased in response to RA, mediated by a PI3K- or PKC-dependent signaling pathway, respectively. Another focus of our research has been O-GlcNAcylation, a dynamic post-translational modification regulated by the enzymes O-GlcNAc transferase and O-GlcNAcase (OGA). We show that decreased OGA activity stimulates sAPPα secretion, without affecting APLP2 processing. We further show that ADAM10 is O-GlcNAcylated. Lastly, we show that APP can be manipulated to be cleaved in a similar way as APLP2 during IGF-1 stimulation by substituting the E1 domain in APP with the E1 domain in APLP2. Together our results show distinct α-site processing mechanisms of APP and APLP2.