Exosomal yRNA in different stages of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) causes a significant decline in cognition and the pathology is characterized by the accumulation of the peptides amyloid-beta and tau. The content of blood-derived exosomes are viewed as a potential biomarker for AD, and a good candidate may be yRNA. The overall objective of this project is to investigate pathological mechanisms underlying AD. The 5XFAD transgenic mouse model, which has five human mutations associated with AD, will be used to collect plasma and organs and to do behavioral analyzes. Exosomes will be isolated from plasma samples and brain tissue. Nanoparticle tracking analysis and Western blot was performed and the results indicated that there were exosomes in the samples for both wild type and 5XFAD mice, which was confirmed with transmission emission microscopy. Further, AD affected the size of plasma exosomes. Expression of brain yRNA was analyzed with reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction and the results show that AD affects the expression of Rny3 in the brain in early compared to later stages of AD. The fluctuation of yRNA expression during AD progression should be further tested for the potential to be used as an indicator of disease severity.