IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms14727.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dopamine neuronal loss contributes to memory and reward dysfunction in a model of Alzheimer’s disease

Author

Listed:
  • Annalisa Nobili

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Unit of Molecular Neurosciences, University Campus-Biomedico)

  • Emanuele Claudio Latagliata

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation)

  • Maria Teresa Viscomi

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation)

  • Virve Cavallucci

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Unit of Molecular Neurosciences, University Campus-Biomedico
    Present address: Institute of General Pathology, Università Cattolica School of Medicine, 00168 Rome, Italy)

  • Debora Cutuli

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation)

  • Giacomo Giacovazzo

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology (IBCN), National Research Council (CNR))

  • Paraskevi Krashia

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

  • Francesca Romana Rizzo

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

  • Ramona Marino

    (Unit of Molecular Neurosciences, University Campus-Biomedico
    Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience and Neural Plasticity, University Campus-Biomedico)

  • Mauro Federici

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation)

  • Paola De Bartolo

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Communication and Society (TECOS), University Guglielmo Marconi)

  • Daniela Aversa

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

  • Maria Concetta Dell’Acqua

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Unit of Molecular Neurosciences, University Campus-Biomedico)

  • Alberto Cordella

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

  • Marco Sancandi

    (University Sapienza)

  • Flavio Keller

    (Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience and Neural Plasticity, University Campus-Biomedico)

  • Laura Petrosini

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University Sapienza)

  • Stefano Puglisi-Allegra

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University Sapienza)

  • Nicola Biagio Mercuri

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

  • Roberto Coccurello

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology (IBCN), National Research Council (CNR))

  • Nicola Berretta

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation)

  • Marcello D’Amelio

    (IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation
    Unit of Molecular Neurosciences, University Campus-Biomedico)

Abstract

Alterations of the dopaminergic (DAergic) system are frequently reported in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and are commonly linked to cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms. However, the cause of DAergic system dysfunction in AD remains to be elucidated. We investigated alterations of the midbrain DAergic system in the Tg2576 mouse model of AD, overexpressing a mutated human amyloid precursor protein (APPswe). Here, we found an age-dependent DAergic neuron loss in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) at pre-plaque stages, although substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) DAergic neurons were intact. The selective VTA DAergic neuron degeneration results in lower DA outflow in the hippocampus and nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell. The progression of DAergic cell death correlates with impairments in CA1 synaptic plasticity, memory performance and food reward processing. We conclude that in this mouse model of AD, degeneration of VTA DAergic neurons at pre-plaque stages contributes to memory deficits and dysfunction of reward processing.

Suggested Citation

  • Annalisa Nobili & Emanuele Claudio Latagliata & Maria Teresa Viscomi & Virve Cavallucci & Debora Cutuli & Giacomo Giacovazzo & Paraskevi Krashia & Francesca Romana Rizzo & Ramona Marino & Mauro Federi, 2017. "Dopamine neuronal loss contributes to memory and reward dysfunction in a model of Alzheimer’s disease," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14727
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14727
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14727
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms14727?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alfie Wearn & Stéfanie A. Tremblay & Christine L. Tardif & Ilana R. Leppert & Claudine J. Gauthier & Giulia Baracchini & Colleen Hughes & Patrick Hewan & Jennifer Tremblay-Mercier & Pedro Rosa-Neto & , 2024. "Neuromodulatory subcortical nucleus integrity is associated with white matter microstructure, tauopathy and APOE status," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14727. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.