Presenilins regulate calcium homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum, and dysregulation of intracellular calcium has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease. Elevated presenilin-1 (PS1) holoprotein levels have been detected in postmortem brains of patients carrying familial Alzheimer disease (FAD) PS1 mutations. This study examines the effect of the FAD presenilin mutant that lacks the ninth exon (PS1 ∆E9) and does not undergo endoproteolysis on store-operated calcium (SOC) entry. Significant enhancement of SOC channel activation was detected by electrophysiological measurements in hippocampal neurons with PS1 ∆E9 mutant expression. Here, we show that (i) the hyperactivation of SOC channels is mediated by the STIM1 sensor and can be attenuated by STIM1 knockdown or 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate application, (ii) the STIM2 is not involved in pathological changes of SOC entry, (iii) the pathological SOC entry demonstrates properties of both TRPC and Orai subunit composition, and (iiii) transgenic Drosophila flies with PS1 ∆E9 expression in the cholinergic neuron system show short-term memory loss, which can be abolished by 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate feeding.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Calcium; Calcium channel; Drosophila; SOC; STIM1.