Abstract
alpha-Secretase cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is of great interest because it prevents the formation of the Alzheimer-linked amyloid-beta peptide. APP belongs to a conserved gene family including the two paralogues APP-like protein (APLP) 1 and 2. Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) stimulates the shedding of all three proteins. IGF-1-induced shedding of both APP and APLP1 is dependent on phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K), whereas APLP2 shedding is independent of this signaling pathway. Here, we used human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells to investigate the involvement of protein kinase C (PKC) in the proteolytic processing of endogenously expressed members of the APP family. Processing was induced by IGF-1 or retinoic acid, another known stimulator of APP alpha-secretase shedding. Our results show that stimulation of APP and APLP1 processing involves multiple signaling pathways, whereas APLP2 processing is mainly dependent on PKC. Next, we wanted to investigate whether the difference in the regulation of APLP2 shedding compared with APP shedding could be due to involvement of different processing enzymes. We focused on the two major alpha-secretase candidates ADAM10 and TACE, which both are members of the ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloprotease) family. Shedding was analyzed in the presence of the ADAM10 inhibitor GI254023X, or after transfection with small interfering RNAs targeted against TACE. The results clearly demonstrate that different alpha-secretases are involved in IGF-1-induced processing. APP is mainly cleaved by ADAM10, whereas APLP2 processing is mediated by TACE. Finally, we also show that IGF-1 induces PKC-dependent phosphorylation of TACE.