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Protection Against β‐Amyloid Toxicity in Primary Neurons by Paclitaxel (Taxol)
Author(s) -
Michaelis M. L.,
Ranciat N.,
Chen Y.,
Bechtel M.,
Ragan R.,
Hepperle M.,
Liu Y.,
Georg G.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1046/j.1471-4159.1998.70041623.x
Subject(s) - paclitaxel , toxicity , primary (astronomy) , amyloid (mycology) , amyloid β , chemistry , pharmacology , neuroscience , medicine , biology , disease , cancer , organic chemistry , inorganic chemistry , physics , astronomy
Neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease contain aggregates of abnormally phosphorylated microtubule‐associated protein τ, indicating that microtubule breakdown is a primary event in the neurodegenerative cascade. Recent studies have shown that addition to neuronal cultures of amyloid peptides found in Alzheimer's leads to abnormal phosphorylation of τ and neurofibrillary pathology. We tested the possibility that the microtubule‐stabilizing drug paclitaxel (Taxol) might protect primary neurons against amyloid‐induced toxicity. Neurons exposed to aggregated amyloid peptides 25–35 and 1–42 became pyknotic with degenerating neurites within 24 h. Treatment of cultures with paclitaxel either 2 h before or 2 h after addition of the peptide prevented these morphological alterations. When numbers of viable cells were determined in cultures exposed to amyloid peptide with or without paclitaxel for 24 or 96 h, the percentage of surviving cells was significantly higher in paclitaxel‐treated cultures, and activation of the apoptosis‐associated protease CPP32 was significantly reduced. These observations indicate that microtubule‐stabilizing drugs may help slow development of the neurofibrillary pathology that leads to the loss of neuronal integrity in Alzheimer's disease.