Deficient neurotrophic factors of CSPG4‐type neural cell exosomes in Alzheimer disease

What is it about?

Small pieces of brain cells, called exosomes, have been isolated from human plasma by antibody absorption. The antibody chosen was used to isolate from plasma the exosomes of a nervous system repair cell known as the CSPG4-type neural precursor cell. CSPG4 cells produce and secrete in their exosomes hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) -2 and -13, and type 1 insulin-like growth factor (IGF1), that enhance neural cell survival and functions. CSPG4 cell plasma exosomes from patients with Alzheimer's disease had significantly lower levels of HGF, FGF-13, IGF1 and FGF-2 than these exosomes from matched cognitively normal controls. Mean CSPG4 plasma exosome levels of all growth factors also were significantly lower in patients at the stage of moderate dementia from Alzheimer's disease and at their preclinical stage three to eight years earlier, with no differences between values at these different stages. Current findings suggest that CSPG4 cells export in exosomes neural repair levels of neurotrophic factors that are diminished early in Alzheimer's disease with no significant progression of decreases later in the course. Administration of growth factors or introduction of cells that produce growth factors in the brain may be one useful approach to therapy of Alzheimer's disease.

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