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Updated: Jan 27, 2026

Imaging the Intracellular Trafficking of APP with Photoactivatable GFP
Published on: October 17, 2015
Complex formation of APP with GABAB receptors links axonal trafficking to amyloidogenic processing
Margarita C Dinamarca1, Adi Raveh1, Andy Schneider2
1Department of Biomedicine, Institute of Physiology, University of Basel, Klingelbergstr. 50/70, 4056, Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
GABAB receptors (GBRs) are key regulators of synaptic release but little is known about trafficking mechanisms that control their presynaptic abundance. We now show that sequence-related epitopes in APP, AJAP-1 and PIANP bind with nanomolar affinities to the N-terminal sushi-domain of presynaptic GBRs. Of the three interacting proteins, selectively the genetic loss of APP impaired GBR-mediated presynaptic inhibition and axonal GBR expression. Proteomic and functional analyses revealed that APP associates with JIP and calsyntenin proteins that link the APP/GBR complex in cargo vesicles to the axonal trafficking motor. Complex formation with GBRs stabilizes APP at the cell surface and reduces proteolysis of APP to Aβ, a component of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease patients. Thus, APP/GBR complex formation links presynaptic GBR trafficking to Aβ formation. Our findings support that dysfunctional axonal trafficking and reduced GBR expression in Alzheimer's disease increases Aβ formation.
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