Wenzhi Tan, Jayalakshmi Thiruppathi, Seol Hee Hong, Sao Puth, Sophea Pheng, Bo-Ram Mun, Won-Seok Choi, Kyung-Hwa Lee, Hyun-Sun Park, Duc Tien Nguyen, Min-Cheol Lee, Kwangjoon Jeong, Jin Hai Zheng, Young Kim, Shee Eun Lee, Joon Haeng Rhee
{"title":"Development of an anti-tauopathy mucosal vaccine specifically targeting pathologic conformers.","authors":"Wenzhi Tan, Jayalakshmi Thiruppathi, Seol Hee Hong, Sao Puth, Sophea Pheng, Bo-Ram Mun, Won-Seok Choi, Kyung-Hwa Lee, Hyun-Sun Park, Duc Tien Nguyen, Min-Cheol Lee, Kwangjoon Jeong, Jin Hai Zheng, Young Kim, Shee Eun Lee, Joon Haeng Rhee","doi":"10.1038/s41541-024-00904-1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies are associated with pathological tau protein aggregation, which plays an important role in neurofibrillary degeneration and dementia. Targeted immunotherapy to eliminate pathological tau aggregates is known to improve cognitive deficits in AD animal models. The tau repeat domain (TauRD) plays a pivotal role in tau-microtubule interactions and is critically involved in the aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. Because TauRD forms the structural core of tau aggregates, the development of immunotherapies that selectively target TauRD-induced pathological aggregates holds great promise for the modulation of tauopathies. In this study, we generated recombinant TauRD polypeptide that form neurofibrillary tangle-like structures and evaluated TauRD-specific immune responses following intranasal immunization in combination with the mucosal adjuvant FlaB. In BALB/C mice, repeated immunizations at one-week intervals induced robust TauRD-specific antibody responses in a TLR5-dependent manner. Notably, the resulting antiserum recognized only the aggregated form of TauRD, while ignoring monomeric TauRD. The antiserum effectively inhibited TauRD filament formation and promoted the phagocytic degradation of TauRD aggregate fragments by microglia. The antiserum also specifically recognized pathological tau conformers in the human AD brain. Based on these results, we engineered a built-in flagellin-adjuvanted TauRD (FlaB-TauRD) vaccine and tested its efficacy in a P301S transgenic mouse model. Mucosal immunization with FlaB-TauRD improved quality of life, as indicated by the amelioration of memory deficits, and alleviated tauopathy progression. Notably, the survival of the vaccinated mice was dramatically extended. In conclusion, we developed a mucosal vaccine that exclusively targets pathological tau conformers and prevents disease progression.</p>","PeriodicalId":19335,"journal":{"name":"NPJ Vaccines","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11180213/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"NPJ Vaccines","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-024-00904-1","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"IMMUNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related tauopathies are associated with pathological tau protein aggregation, which plays an important role in neurofibrillary degeneration and dementia. Targeted immunotherapy to eliminate pathological tau aggregates is known to improve cognitive deficits in AD animal models. The tau repeat domain (TauRD) plays a pivotal role in tau-microtubule interactions and is critically involved in the aggregation of hyperphosphorylated tau proteins. Because TauRD forms the structural core of tau aggregates, the development of immunotherapies that selectively target TauRD-induced pathological aggregates holds great promise for the modulation of tauopathies. In this study, we generated recombinant TauRD polypeptide that form neurofibrillary tangle-like structures and evaluated TauRD-specific immune responses following intranasal immunization in combination with the mucosal adjuvant FlaB. In BALB/C mice, repeated immunizations at one-week intervals induced robust TauRD-specific antibody responses in a TLR5-dependent manner. Notably, the resulting antiserum recognized only the aggregated form of TauRD, while ignoring monomeric TauRD. The antiserum effectively inhibited TauRD filament formation and promoted the phagocytic degradation of TauRD aggregate fragments by microglia. The antiserum also specifically recognized pathological tau conformers in the human AD brain. Based on these results, we engineered a built-in flagellin-adjuvanted TauRD (FlaB-TauRD) vaccine and tested its efficacy in a P301S transgenic mouse model. Mucosal immunization with FlaB-TauRD improved quality of life, as indicated by the amelioration of memory deficits, and alleviated tauopathy progression. Notably, the survival of the vaccinated mice was dramatically extended. In conclusion, we developed a mucosal vaccine that exclusively targets pathological tau conformers and prevents disease progression.
NPJ VaccinesImmunology and Microbiology-Immunology
CiteScore
11.90
自引率
4.30%
发文量
146
审稿时长
11 weeks
期刊介绍:
Online-only and open access, npj Vaccines is dedicated to highlighting the most important scientific advances in vaccine research and development.