Basic Science and Pathogenesis

Age-dependent dendritic spine loss is a hypothesized mechanism by which increased chronological age lowers the threshold for developing cognitive decline after ADRD pathologies accumulate. Therefore, slowing spine loss during normal aging may be a strategy to enhance resilience to cognitive decline induced by the accumulation of ADRD pathologies. In a recent human postmortem study of precuneus tissue, we identified repurposed drugs that are predicted to reverse the proteome signature of age-dependent spine loss, thus slowing spine loss and enhancing resilience to cognitive decline. NIA has promulgated HET3 mice as a preferred model for preclinical evaluation of anti-aging therapies. We therefore sought to evaluate the face validity of the HET3 mouse as a model of age-dependent spine loss and its associated proteome alterations and cognitive deficits.

Male HET3 mice 6 and 21 months of age (n = 6 per age group) were sacrificed and perfused with normal saline, after which left cerebral cortices and right hemibrains were harvested for proteomics and immunohistochemistry/confocal microscopy, respectively. Dendritic spine densities at 12-15 randomly selected sites per mouse in retrosplenial cortex (RSC) were quantified with immunohistochemistry/confocal microscopy by colocalization of antibody-mediated detection of spinophillin and filamentous actin by phalloidin. Left cerebral cortex gray matter was homogenized in Syn-Per reagent and protein abundances quantified by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry.

Male HET3 mice between 6 and 21 months of age exhibit reduction in spine density in RSC of large effect size (Cohen's d=0.893), nearly reaching significance in this small sample (one-sided t-test p = 0.076) (Figure 1). The magnitude of spine density reduction (7.8%) was similar to that which we previously observed between the youngest (20-30 years of age) and oldest (>70 years of age) subjects in our study of human postmortem precuneus (8.5%). The proteome signature of aging in HET3 mice and age-dependent cognitive deficits detected in a separate sample cohort will be presented.

The HET3 mouse may be a viable model for studies designed to test candidate interventions for their abilities to slow age-dependent spine loss and protect against cognitive decline. Additional studies with larger sample sizes of both sexes designed to replicate age-dependent spine loss in HET3 are warranted.