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Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 23|pp 11591—11608

Pharmacological inhibition of G9a/GLP restores cognition and reduces oxidative stress, neuroinflammation and β-Amyloid plaques in an early-onset Alzheimer’s disease mouse model

Christian Griñán-Ferré1, Laura Marsal-García1, Aina Bellver-Sanchis1, Shukkoor Muhammed Kondengaden2, Ravi Chakra Turga3, Santiago Vázquez4, Mercè Pallàs1
  • 1Pharmacology Section, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutic Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona (NeuroUB), Barcelona 08028, Spain
  • 2Chemistry Department and Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
  • 3Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA
  • 4Laboratori de Química Farmacèutica (Unitat Associada al CSIC), Department de Farmacologia, Toxicologia i Química Terapèutica, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l’Alimentació, and Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona E-08028, Spain
Received: October 1, 2019Accepted: November 20, 2019Published: December 4, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102558

Copyright © 2019 Griñán-Ferré et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The implication of epigenetic mechanisms in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been demonstrated in several studies. UNC0642, a specific and potent inhibitor of methyltransferase activity G9a/GLP (G9a-like) complex, was evaluated in the 5XFAD mouse model. UNC0642 treatment rescued 5XFAD cognition impairment, reduced DNA-methylation (5-mC), increased hydroxymethylation (5-hmC), and decreased the di-methylation of lysine 9 of histone H3 (H3K9me2) levels in the hippocampus. Increases in the Nuclear Factor erythroid-2-Related Factor 2 (NRF2), Heme oxygenase decycling 1 (Hmox1) gene expression, and diminution in Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) were also reported. Moreover, neuroinflammatory markers, such as Interleukin 6 (Il-6), Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (Tnf-α) gene expression, and Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunofluorescence were reduced by UNC0642 treatment. An increase in Nerve growth factor (Ngf), Nerve growth factor inducible (Vgf) gene expression, Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and Synaptophysin (SYN) were found after UNC0642 treatment. Importantly, a reduction in β-amyloid plaques was also observed. In conclusion, our work demonstrates that the inhibition of the G9a/GLP complex by UNC0642 delivered significant neuroprotective effects in 5XFAD mice, point out G9a/GLP as a new target for AD.