Thioperamide attenuates neuroinflammation and cognitive impairments in Alzheimer's disease via inhibiting gliosis

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disease, which characterized by deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, neuronal loss, and accompanied by neuroinflammation. Neuroinflammatory processes are well acknowledged to contribute to the progression of AD pathology. Histamine H3 receptor (H3R) is a presynaptic autoreceptor regulating histamine release via negative feedback way. Recently, studies show that H3R are highly expressed not only in neurons but also in microglia and astrocytes. H3R antagonist has been reported to have anti-inflammatory efficacy. However, whether inhibition of H3R is responsible for the anti-neuroinflammation in glial cells and neuroprotection on APPswe, PSEN1dE9 (APP/PS1 Tg) mice remain unclear. In this study, we found that inhibition of H3R by thioperamide reduced the gliosis and induced a phenotypical switch from A1 to A2 in astrocytes, and ultimately attenuated neuroinflammation in APP/PS1 Tg mice. Additionally, thioperamide rescued the decrease of cyclic AMP response element-binding protein (CREB) phosphorylation and suppressed the phosphorylated P65 nuclear factor kappa B (p-P65 NF-κB) in APP/PS1 Tg mice. H89, an inhibitor of CREB signaling, abolished these effects of thioperamide to suppress gliosis and proinflammatory cytokine release. Lastly, thioperamide alleviated the deposition of amyloid-β (Aβ) and cognitive dysfunction in APP/PS1 mice, which were both reversed by administration of H89. Taken together, these results suggested the H3R antagonist thioperamide improved cognitive impairment in APP/PS1 Tg mice via modulation of the CREB-mediated gliosis and inflammation inhibiting, which contributed to Aβ clearance. This study uncovered a novel mechanism involving inflammatory regulating behind the therapeutic effect of thioperamide in AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Astrocyte; Cognitive impairment; Cyclic AMP response element-binding protein; Gliosis; Histamine; Histamine H3 receptor; Interleukin-1β; Interleukin-4; Microglia; Neuroinflammation; Nuclear factor kappa-B; Thioperamide; Tumor necrosis factor α; β-Amyloid.