Research Article
Somatostatin Modulates Insulin-Degrading-Enzyme Metabolism: Implications for the Regulation of Microglia Activity in AD
Grazia Tundo, Chiara Ciaccio, Diego Sbardella, Mariaserena Boraso, Barbara Viviani, Massimiliano Coletta, Stefano Marini
Published:
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0034376
License:
Tundo et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.2012
Abstract
The deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) into senile plaques and the impairment of somatostatin-mediated neurotransmission are key pathological events in the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Insulin-degrading-enzyme (IDE) is one of the main extracellular protease targeting Aβ, and thus it represents an interesting pharmacological target for AD therapy. We show that the active form of somatostatin-14 regulates IDE activity by affecting its expression and secretion in microglia cells. A similar effect can also be observed when adding octreotide. Following a previous observation where somatostatin directly interacts with IDE, here we demonstrate that somatostatin regulates Aβ catabolism by modulating IDE proteolytic activity in IDE gene-silencing experiments. As a whole, these data indicate the relevant role played by somatostatin and, potentially, by analogue octreotide, in preventing Aβ accumulation by partially restoring IDE activity.