- Lee, Nathanael J;
- Song, Jung Min;
- Cho, Hyun-Ji;
- Sung, You Me;
- Lee, Taehee;
- Chung, Andrew;
- Hong, Sung-Ha;
- Cifelli, Jessica L;
- Rubinshtein, Mark;
- Habib, Lila K;
- Capule, Christina C;
- Turner, R Scott;
- Pak, Daniel TS;
- Yang, Jerry;
- Hoe, Hyang-Sook
Our recent study demonstrated that an amyloid-β binding molecule, BTA-EG4, increases dendritic spine number via Ras-mediated signaling. To potentially optimize the potency of the BTA compounds, we synthesized and evaluated an amyloid-β binding analog of BTA-EG4 with increased solubility in aqueous solution, BTA-EG6. We initially examined the effects of BTA-EG6 on dendritic spine formation and found that BTA-EG6-treated primary hippocampal neurons had significantly increased dendritic spine number compared to control treatment. In addition, BTA-EG6 significantly increased the surface level of AMPA receptors. Upon investigation into the molecular mechanism by which BTA-EG6 promotes dendritic spine formation, we found that BTA-EG6 may exert its effects on spinogenesis via RasGRF1-ERK signaling, with potential involvement of other spinogenesis-related proteins such as Cdc42 and CDK5. Taken together, our data suggest that BTA-EG6 boosts spine and synapse number, which may have a beneficial effect of enhancing neuronal and synaptic function in the normal healthy brain.