Long noncoding RNA MEG3 activates neuronal necroptosis in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Abstract/SummaryNeuronal cell loss is a defining feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but it remains unclear how neurons die and how this relates to other defining characteristics of the disease1. Existing in vivo AD models only partially recapitulate the neuropathology of AD with very mild or no neuronal cell loss. Here we demonstrate that human neurons xenografted in mouse brain exposed to amyloid pathology develop sarkosyl-insoluble tau filaments, positive Gallyas silver staining, release phosphorylated tau (P-tau181) into the blood, and display considerable neuronal cell loss, providing a model for the induction of full Tau pathology by simple exposure to amyloid pathology in AD. The alterations are specific to human neurons and contrast with the mild effects exhibited in mouse neurons. A core transcriptional program in the human neurons is characterized by strong upregulation of MEG3, a neuron-specific long noncoding RNA. MEG3 is also strongly upregulated in neurons from AD patients in situ. MEG3 expression alone is sufficient to induce necroptosis in human neurons in vitro. Orally administered small molecule receptor-interacting protein (RIP) kinase -1 and -3 inhibitors rescued the neuronal cell loss in this novel AD model. Thus, xenografted human neurons are uniquely sensitive to amyloid pathology, recapitulate all the defining neuropathological features of AD, and ultimately die by necroptosis.