Ezrin Expression is Increased During Disease Progression in a Tauopathy Mouse Model and Alzheimer's Disease

The lack of diagnostic tools and disease-modifying treatments against Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders, collectively known as tauopathies, has led to a socioeconomic burden of epidemic proportion. Proteomics approaches can be used to identify novel proteome changes that could help us understand the pathogenesis of tau-related pathological hallmarks and/or cellular stress responses associated with tauopathy. These studies, however, need to be conducted taking into consideration brain region specificity and stage of neurodegeneration in order to provide insights about the pathological role of the identified proteins.

We used a tauopathy mouse model (JNPL3) that expresses human tau bearing a P301L mutation and develops motor impairment, the severity of which correlates with the increased accumulation of pathological tau. Tissue was dissected from asymptomatic and severely motor impaired JNPL3 mice as well as non-transgenic littermate controls and subjected to two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Differentially abundant protein spots were identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Postmortem mild cognitive impairment (MCI), AD and normal aging controls were used to validate the pathological significance of the identified protein.

Ezrin was identified as a protein that is upregulated in tau-mediated neurodegeneration. We demonstrate that Ezrin protein abundance increased in JNPL3 mice preceded motor impairment and was sustained in severely motor impaired mice. Ezrin expression was also increased in the temporal cortex of MCI and AD patients.

The results demonstrate that increased Ezrin protein abundance changes are associated with the early stages of neurodegeneration in tauopathy models and human disease. Understanding the role of Ezrin in tauopathies such as AD may provide new insights for targeting tau-mediated neurodegeneration.