Design, characterization, and use of a novel amyloid β-protein control for assembly, neurotoxicity, and gene expression studies. Rattus norvegicus

A key pathogenic agent in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the amyloid β-protein (Aβ), which self-assembles into a variety of neurotoxic structures. Establishing structure-activity relationships for these assemblies is critical for proper therapeutic target identification and design. We examined the effects of Aβ monomers, dimers, higher-order oligomers, and fibrils on gene expression in primary rat hippocampal neurons. As opposed to “reverse” Aβ or non-Aβ peptides typically used as controls in such studies, we designed novel scrambled Aβ peptides predicted to behave distinctly from native Aβ. Significant changes in gene expression were observed for all peptide assemblies, but fibrils induced the largest changes. Significant changes in gene expression were observed for all peptide assemblies, but fibrils induced the largest changes. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed two predominant gene modules related to Aβ treatment. Many genes within these modules were associated with inflammatory signaling pathways Overall design: We examined the effects of Aβ monomers, dimers, higher-order oligomers, and fibrils on gene expression in primary rat hippocampal neurons. Novel scrambled Aβ peptides, as opposed to “reverse” Aβ or non-Aβ peptides, were used as controls. Please note that the 'XL42_1' sample was excluded from data processing as an outlier (resulting total 23 sample records). However the 'XL42_1' raw data is provided in the 'non_normalized.txt' (total 24 data columns).