Atypical protein kinase C in neurodegenerative disease I: PKMζ aggregates with limbic neurofibrillary tangles and AMPA receptors in Alzheimer disease

Protein kinase Mζ (PKMζ), an atypical protein kinase C (PKC) isoform, plays a key role in the maintenance of long-term potentiation (LTP), a persistent enhancement of AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission, as well as in the persistence of memory in Drosophila. Because memory impairment in Alzheimer disease (AD) has been attributed to disruption of synaptic plasticity, we investigated the expression and distribution of PKMζ in this disorder. We found that PKMζ accumulated in neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), whereas conventional and novel PKC isoforms did not. Unlike tau, which is present in all NFTs regardless of location, PKMζ was found in a subset of NFTs restricted to limbic or medial temporal lobe structures (i.e. hippocampal formation, entorhinal cortex, and amygdala), areas implicated in memory loss in AD. Interestingly, PKMζ was not identified in any NFTs in control brains derived from 6 elderly individuals without known cognitive impairment. In medial temporal lobe structures in AD, PKMζ also occurred within abnormal neurites expressing MAP2, GluR1 and GluR2 as well as in perisomatic granules expressing GluR1 and GluR2, suggesting that aggregation of PKMζ disrupts glutamatergic synaptic transmission. Together, these findings suggest a link between PKMζ-mediated synaptic plasticity and memory impairment in AD.