Ligands binding to the cellular prion protein induce its protective proteolytic release with therapeutic potential in neurodegenerative proteinopathies
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract The cellular prion protein (PrP C ) is a central player in neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding, such as prion diseases or Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Expression levels of this GPI-anchored glycoprotein, especially at the neuronal cell surface, critically correlate with various pathomechanistic aspects underlying these diseases, such as templated misfolding (in prion diseases) and neurotoxicity and, hence, with disease progression and severity. In stark contrast to cell-associated PrP C , soluble extracellular forms or fragments of PrP are linked with neuroprotective effects, which is likely due to their ability to interfere with neurotoxic disease-associated protein conformers in the interstitial fluid. Fittingly, the endogenous proteolytic release of PrP C by the metalloprotease ADAM10 (‘shedding’) was characterized as a protective mechanism. Here, using a recently generated cleavage-site specific antibody, we shed new light on earlier studies by demonstrating that shed PrP (sPrP) negatively correlates with conformational conversion (in prion disease) and is markedly redistributed in murine brain in the presence of prion deposits or AD-associated amyloid plaques indicating a blocking and sequestrating activity. Importantly, we reveal that administration of certain PrP-directed antibodies and other ligands results in increased PrP shedding in cells and organotypic brain slice cultures. We also provide mechanistic and structural insight into this shedding-stimulating effect. In addition, we identified a striking exception to this, as one particular neuroprotective antibody, due to its special binding characteristics, did not cause increased shedding but rather strong surface clustering followed by fast endocytosis and degradation of PrP C . Both mechanisms may contribute to the beneficial action described for some PrP-directed antibodies/ligands and pave the way for new therapeutic strategies against devastating and currently incurable neurodegenerative diseases.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".