Open AccessMitochondrial DNA Rearrangement Spectrum in Brain Tissue of Alzheimer’s Disease: Analysis of 13 Cases
Author(s) -
Yucai Chen,
Changsheng Liu,
W. Davis Parker,
Hongyi Chen,
Thomas G. Beach,
Xinhua Liu,
Geidy E. Serrano,
Yanfen Lu,
Jian Huang,
Kunfang Yang,
Chunmei Wang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0154582
Subject(s) - mitochondrial dna , biology , mitochondrion , human brain , pathology , brain tissue , gene rearrangement , mitochondrial disease , nuclear dna , medicine , genetics , anatomy , neuroscience , gene
Background Mitochondrial dysfunction may play a central role in the pathologic process of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but there is still a scarcity of data that directly links the pathology of AD with the alteration of mitochondrial DNA. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive assessment of mtDNA rearrangement events in AD brain tissue. Patients and Methods Postmortem frozen human brain cerebral cortex samples were obtained from the Banner Sun Health Research Institute Brain and Body Donation Program, Sun City, AZ. Mitochondria were isolated and direct sequence by using MiSeq®, and analyzed by relative software. Results Three types of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) rearrangements have been seen in post mortem human brain tissue from patients with AD and age matched control. These observed rearrangements include a deletion, F-type rearrangement, and R-type rearrangement. We detected a high level of mtDNA rearrangement in brain tissue from cognitively normal subjects, as well as the patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The rate of rearrangements was calculated by dividing the number of positive rearrangements by the coverage depth. The rearrangement rate was significantly higher in AD brain tissue than in control brain tissue (17.9%versus 6.7%; p = 0.0052). Of specific types of rearrangement, deletions were markedly increased in AD (9.2% versus 2.3%; p = 0.0005). Conclusions Our data showed that failure of mitochondrial DNA in AD brain might be important etiology of AD pathology.