Increasing Tau 4R Tau Levels Exacerbates Hippocampal Tau Hyperphosphorylation in the hTau Model of Tauopathy but Also Tau Dephosphorylation Following Acute Systemic Inflammation

Inflammation is considered a mechanistic driver of Alzheimer's disease, thought to increase tau phosphorylation, the first step to the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). To further understand how inflammation impacts the development of tau pathology, we used (hTau) mice, which express all six, non-mutated, human tau isoforms, but with an altered ratio of tau isoforms favoring 3R tau due to the concomitant loss of murine tau (mTau) that is predominantly 4R. Such an imbalance pattern has been related to susceptibility to NFTs formation, but whether or not this also affects susceptibility to systemic inflammation and related changes in tau phosphorylation is not known. To reduce the predominance of 3R tau by increasing 4R tau availability, we bred hTau mice on a heterozygous mTau background and compared the impact of systemic inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in hTau mice hetero- or homozygous mTau knockout. Three-month-old male wild-type (Wt), mTau(+/−), mTau(−/−), hTau/mTau(+/−), and hTau/mTau(−/−) mice were administered 100, 250, or 330 μg/kg of LPS or its vehicle phosphate buffer saline (PBS) [intravenously (i.v.), n = 8–9/group]. Sickness behavior, reflected by behavioral suppression in the spontaneous alternation task, hippocampal tau phosphorylation, measured by western immunoblotting, and circulating cytokine levels were quantified 4 h after LPS administration. The persistence of the LPS effects (250 μg/kg) on these measures, and food burrowing behavior, was assessed at 24 h post-inoculation in Wt, mTau(+/−), and hTau/mTau(+/−) mice (n = 9–10/group). In the absence of immune stimulation, increasing 4R tau levels in hTau/mTau(+/−) exacerbated pS202 and pS396/404 tau phosphorylation, without altering total tau levels or worsening early behavioral perturbations characteristic of hTau/mTau(−/−) mice. We also show for the first time that modulating 4R tau levels in hTau mice affects the response to systemic inflammation. Behavior was suppressed in all genotypes 4 h following LPS administration, but hTau/mTau(+/−) exhibited more severe sickness behavior at the 100 μg/kg dose and a milder behavioral and cytokine response than hTau/mTau(−/−) mice at the 330 μg/kg dose. All LPS doses decreased tau phosphorylation at both epitopes in hTau/mTau(+/−) mice, but pS202 levels were selectively reduced at the 100 μg/kg dose in hTau/mTau(−/−) mice. Behavioral suppression and decreased tau phosphorylation persisted at 24 h following LPS administration in hTau/mTau(+/−) mice.