Insulin receptor signaling mediates APP processing and β-amyloid accumulation without altering survival in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease

Oliver Stöhr, Katharina Schilbach, Lorna Moll, Moritz M. Hettich, Susanna Freude, F. Thomas Wunderlich, Marianne Ernst, Johanna Zemva, Jens C. Brüning, Wilhelm Krone, Michael Udelhoven, Markus Schubert

In brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), expression of insulin receptor (IR), insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R), and insulin receptor substrate proteins is downregulated. A key step in the pathogenesis of AD is the accumulation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) cleavage products, β-amyloid (Aβ)(1-42) and Aβ(1-40). Recently, we and others have shown that central IGF-1 resistance reduces Aβ accumulation as well as Aβ toxicity and promotes survival. To define the role of IR in this context, we crossed neuron-specific IR knockout mice (nIR(-/-)) with Tg2576 mice, a well-established mouse model of an AD-like pathology. Here, we show that neuronal IR deficiency in Tg2576 (nIR(-/-)Tg2576) mice leads to markedly decreased Aβ burden but does not rescue premature mortality of Tg2576 mice. Analyzing APP C-terminal fragments (CTF) revealed decreased α-/β-CTFs in the brains of nIR(-/-)Tg2576 mice suggesting decreased APP processing. Cell based experiments showed that inhibition of the PI3-kinase pathway suppresses endosomal APP cleavage and decreases α- as well as β-secretase activity. Deletion of only one copy of the neuronal IGF-1R partially rescues the premature mortality of Tg2576 mice without altering total amyloid load. Analysis of Tg2576 mice expressing either a dominant negative or constitutively active form of forkhead box-O (FoxO)1 did not reveal any alteration of amyloid burden, APP processing and did not rescue premature mortality in these mice. Thus, our findings identified IR signaling as a potent regulator of Aβ accumulation in vivo. But exclusively decreased IGF-1R expression reduces AD-associated mortality independent of β-amyloid accumulation and FoxO1-mediated transcription.