Alzheimer disease-related presenilin-1 variants exert distinct effects on monoamine oxidase-A activity in vitro

Monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) has been associated with both depression and Alzheimer disease (AD). Recently, carriers of AD-related presenilin-1 (PS-1) alleles have been found to be at higher risk for developing clinical depression. We chose to examine whether PS-1 could influence MAO-A function in vitro. Overexpression of selected AD-related PS-1 variants (wildtype, Y115H, ΔEx9 and M146V) in mouse hippocampal HT-22 cells affects MAO-A catalytic activity in a variant-specific manner. The ability of the PS-1 substrate-competitor DAPT to induce MAO-A activity in cells expressing either PS-1 wildtype or PS-1(M146V) suggests the potential for a direct influence of PS-1 on MAO-A function. In support of this, we were able to co-immunoprecipitate MAO-A with FLAG-tagged PS-1 wildtype and M146V proteins. This potential for a direct protein–protein interaction between PS-1 and MAO-A is not specific for HT-22 cells as we were also able to co-immunoprecipitate MAO-A with FLAG-PS-1 variants in N2a mouse neuroblastoma cells and in HEK293 human embryonic kidney cells. Finally, we demonstrate that the two PS-1 variants reported to be associated with an increased incidence of clinical depression [e.g., A431E and L235V] both induce MAO-A activity in HT-22 cells. A direct influence of PS-1 variants on MAO-A function could provide an explanation for the changes in monoaminergic tone observed in several neurodegenerative processes including AD. The ability to induce MAO-A catalytic activity with a PS-1/γ-secretase inhibitor should also be considered when designing secretase inhibitor-based therapeutics.