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Research Paper|Volume 7, Issue 10|pp 793—810

Defective mitochondrial respiration, altered dNTP pools and reduced AP endonuclease 1 activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of Alzheimer's disease patients

Scott Maynard1, Anne-Mette Hejl2, Thuan-Son T. Dinh1, Guido Keijzers1, Åse M. Hansen3,4, Claus Desler1, Maria Moreno-Villanueva5, Alexander Bürkle5, Lene J. Rasmussen1, Gunhild Waldemar2, Vilhelm A. Bohr1,6
  • 1Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 2Department of Neurology, Danish Dementia Research Centre, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 3Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 4The National Research Centre for the Working Environment, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 5Molecular Toxicology Group, University of Konstanz, D-78457 Konstanz, Germany
  • 6Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224-6825, USA
* Present address: Danish Cancer Society Research Center, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Received: August 25, 2015Accepted: September 15, 2015Published: October 21, 2015
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100810

Copyright: © 2015 Maynard et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

AIMS

Accurate biomarkers for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are badly needed. Recent reports suggest that dysfunctional mitochondria and DNA damage are associated with AD development. In this report, we measured various cellular parameters, related to mitochondrial bioenergetics and DNA damage, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of AD and control participants, for biomarker discovery.

METHODS

PBMCs were isolated from 53 patients with AD of mild to moderate degree and 30 age-matched healthy controls. Tests were performed on the PBMCs from as many of these participants as possible. We measured glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration fluxes using the Seahorse Bioscience flux analyzer, mitochondrial ROS production using flow cytometry, dNTP levels by way of a DNA polymerization assay, DNA strand breaks using the Fluorometric detection of Alkaline DNA Unwinding (FADU) assay, and APE1 incision activity (in cell lysates) on a DNA substrate containing an AP site (to estimate DNA repair efficiency).

RESULTS

In the PBMCs of AD patients, we found reduced basal mitochondrial oxygen consumption, reduced proton leak, higher dATP level, and lower AP endonuclease 1 activity, depending on adjustments for gender and/or age. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals impaired mitochondrial respiration, altered dNTP pools and reduced DNA repair activity in PBMCs of AD patients, thus suggesting that these biochemical activities may be useful as biomarkers for AD.