Asymmetric dimethylarginine exacerbates cognitive dysfunction associated with cerebrovascular pathology

Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), an endogenous inhibitor and uncoupler of nitric oxide synthase, has gained attention as a risk factor for cardiac disease, metabolic syndrome, and cerebrovascular disease. In this study, we investigated the role of systemic ADMA overburden in cerebromicrovascular pathology associated with cognitive dysfunction using APPSwDI transgenic mice expressing human β-amyloid precursor protein Swedish (Tg-SwDI), a model of cerebrovascular β-amyloidosis. To induce systemic overburden of ADMA, Tg-SwDI mice were treated with a daily dose of exogenous ADMA. ADMA treatment resulted in elevated ADMA levels in the blood and brain of Tg-SwDI mice. ADMA treatment induced the brain nitrosative stress and inflammation as well as enhanced the brain Aβ deposition and cognitive impairment in Tg-SwDI mice. However, ADMA treatment had no such effects on wild type mice. ADMA treatment also exacerbated brain microvascular pathology in Tg-SwDI mice as observed by increased blood-brain barrier dysfunction, loss of tight junction proteins, increased endothelial stress fibers, and decreased microvessel density in the brain. In addition, similar observations were made in cultured human brain microvessel endothelial cells, where ADMA in the presence of VEGF-induced endothelial cell signaling for F-actin stress fiber inducing endothelial barrier dysfunction. Overall, these data document the potential role of ADMA in the cognitive pathology under conditions of cerebrovascular β-amyloidosis.