Overexpression of heme oxygenase 1 causes cognitive decline and affects pathways for tauopathy in mice

The stress protein heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is upregulated and co-localizes to pathological features, including tauopathies in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. However, the relationship between HO-1 and Alzheimer's disease remains unclear. In our previous research, the long-term overexpression of HO-1 was shown to promote tau aggregation by inducing tau phosphorylation in the mouse brain. In this study, we found that the long-term overexpression of HO-1 led to cognitive decline in transgenic mice, as determined by the water maze test, and that HO-1 can affect two pathways for tauopathy. Through one pathway, HO-1 promotes the expression of CDK5 by accumulating reactive oxygen species, which are produced by HO-1 downstream products of iron in neuro2a cell lines and mouse brain. Through the second pathway, HO-1 induces tau truncation at D421 in vivo and in vitro. Clearly, there is a HO-1-dependent mechanism responsible for tau protein phosphorylation and tau truncation in vivo and in vitro. Taken together, our results suggest that HO-1 plays an important role in the disease process of tauopathies in AD.