Anti-NFATc1 (NFAT2), anti-NFATc4 (NFAT3), anti-NFATc3 (NFAT4), anti-phosphoNFATc2 (NFAT1), anti-ERK2, and α-tubulin antibodies were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA). The anti-MAP2 antibody was from Cell Signaling Technology Inc (Danvers, MA, USA). HRP-conjugated secondary antibodies were also obtained from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Dallas, TX, USA). The anti-NFATc2 (NFAT1) antibody and FK506 were obtained from Abcam (Cambridge, MA, USA). Anti-CD68 antibody was from AbD Serotec (Raleigh, NC, USA). Anti-APP antibody was from Zymed Laboratories (San Francisco, CA, USA). Elite Vectastain ABC Avidin and Biotin, Vector VIP, biotinylated anti-rat and anti-mouse antibodies were obtained from Vector Laboratories Inc (Burlingame, CA, USA). Synaptophysin antibody was purchased from Chemicon International, Inc (Temecula, CA, USA). Phospho-NFκB (p65) antibody, NFκB (p65) antibody, PSD95 antibody, and beta site APP cleaving enzyme (BACE) antibody were from Cell Signaling Technology Inc (Danvers, MA, USA). Anti-Aβ (4G8) antibody was from Covance (Emeryville, CA, USA). The c-Fos antibody was purchased from Novus Biologicals, LLC (Littleton, CO, USA). Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and MTT were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Human Aβ1-42 was purchased from Bachem (Torrance, CA, USA) and fibrillized before use according to our prior protocol [
80]. A VIVIT peptide sequence, MAGPHPVIVITGPHEE, that interacts with NFAT at its calcineurin binding site and inhibits its activation was used along with its negative control, VEET, peptide [
73]. A cell-permeable variation of VIVIT peptide, tat-VIVIT, fused with an HIV-1 TAT protein cationic transduction domain [
76,
77], was generated to examine the potential of this novel peptide construct for NFAT inhibition as in our prior work [
70]. The inhibitory peptide tat-VIVIT (H-YGRKKRRQRRR-AA-MAGPHPVIVITGPHEE-NH
2) and negative control peptide, tat-VEET (H-YGRKKRRQRRR-AA-MAGPPHIVEETGPHVI-NH
2), were synthesized by Dr. Satya Yadav at the Molecular Biotechnology Core Laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (Cleveland, OH). Cytokine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits for TNFα, interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1β were purchased from R&D Systems (Minneapolis, MN, USA). Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) bioparticles were purchased from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA, USA).