Volume 22, Issue 8 p. 2970-2980
Research Communication
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Genetic deletion of BACE1 in mice affects remyelination of sciatic nerves

Xiangyou Hu

Xiangyou Hu

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Wanxia He

Wanxia He

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Claudiu Diaconu

Claudiu Diaconu

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Xiaoying Tang

Xiaoying Tang

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Grahame J. Kidd

Grahame J. Kidd

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Wendy B. Macklin

Wendy B. Macklin

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Bruce D. Trapp

Bruce D. Trapp

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

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Riqiang Yan

Corresponding Author

Riqiang Yan

Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Correspondence: Department of Neurosciences, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 15 April 2008
Citations: 143

ABSTRACT

BACE1 is a promising therapeutic and preventive target for Alzheimer's disease because it is essential for amyloid deposition. However, the recent demonstration of BACE1 in modulating developmental myelination in both peripheral and central nervous systems raises a concern of its effect on myelin maintenance or remyelination, and inhibition of these processes will potentially be detrimental to the BACE1 inhibitor users who are susceptible to myelination diseases such as adult peripheral nerve injury or multiple sclerosis. In this report, we investigated the role of BACE1 during peripheral nerve remyelination in wildtype (WT) and BACE1-null mice. We show here that genetic deletion of BACE1 affects sciatic nerve remyelination. The impaired remyelination appears to stem from the loss of neuregulin-1 cleavage by BACE1. To demonstrate a direct cleavage of neuregulin-1 by BACE1, we have identified a BACE1 cleavage site that turns out be highly conserved among neuregulin-1 paralogues. Moreover, we show that neuregulin-1 family member neuregulin-3 is also cleavable by BACE1. We hypothesize that the BACE1-cleaved extracellular domain of axonal neuregulin-1, perhaps neuregulin-3 as well, binds to Schwann cell ErbB receptors, which in turn regulate remyelination. Pharmacological inhibition of BACE1 should be carefully monitored to avoid alteration of signaling pathway that regulates remyelination.—Hu, X., He, W., Diaconu, C., Tang, X., Kidd, G. J., Macklin, W. B., Trapp, B. D., Yan, R. Genetic deletion of BACE1 in mice affects remyelination of sciatic nerves. FASEB J. 22, 2970–2980 (2008)