Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disease for which there are limited therapeutic strategies. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity is decreased in AD brains, which promotes the hyperphosphorylation of Tau and APP, thus participate in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and β-amyloid (Aβ) overproduction. In this study, the effect of synthetic tricyclic sulfonamide PP2A activators (aka SMAPs) on reducing AD-like pathogenesis was evaluated in AD cell models and AD-like hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) rat models. SMAPs effectively increased PP2A activity, and decreased tau phosphorylation and Aβ 40/42 levels in AD cell models. In HHcy-AD rat models, cognitive impairments induced by HHcy were rescued by SMAP administration. HHcy-induced tau hyperphosphorylation and Aβ overproduction were ameliorated through increasing PP2A activity on compound treatment. Importantly, SMAP therapy also prevented neuronal cell spine loss and neuronal synapse impairment in the hippocampus of HHcy-AD rats. In summary, our data reveal that pharmacological PP2A reactivation may be a novel therapeutic strategy for AD treatment, and that the tricyclic sulfonamides constitute a novel candidate class of AD therapeutic.