Inhibition of Alzheimer's amyloid-β peptide-induced reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential and neurotoxicity by gelsolin

Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides play a central role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. They are known to induce mitochondrial dysfunction and caspase activation, resulting in apoptosis of neuronal cells. Here we show that human cytoplasmic gelsolin inhibits Aβ peptide-induced cell death of neuronally differentiated rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cells. We also show that the segment 5 but not 6 of human cytoplasmic gelsolin is the important region responsible for inhibition of Aβ-induced cytotoxicity. Mitochondrial dysfunction associated with cell death, membrane potential loss and the release of cytochrome c are all abrogated in the presence of human full-length or segment 5 cytoplasmic gelsolin. Furthermore, RNA interference to reduce expression of endogenous gelsolin in PC-12 cells shows that rat gelsolin act as an inhibitor of Aβ cytotoxicity. These results demonstrate that cytoplasmic gelsolin plays a important role in inhibiting Aβ-induced cytotoxicity by inhibiting apoptotic mitochondrial changes. The segment 5 of human cytoplasmic gelsolin is sufficient for the function.