AUTHORS: Ceyzériat K., Jaques E., Gloria Y., Badina A., Millet P., Koutsouvelis N., Dipasquale G., Frisoni G. B., Zilli T., Garibotto V., Tournier B. B.

Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 98(3): 1001-1016, 12 March 2024


ABSTRACT

Background

Low-dose radiation therapy (LD-RT) has demonstrated in preclinical and clinical studies interesting properties in the perspective of targeting Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including anti-amyloid and anti-inflammatory effects. Nevertheless, studies were highly heterogenous with respect to total doses, fractionation protocols, sex, age at the time of treatment and delay post treatment. Recently, we demonstrated that LD-RT reduced amyloid peptides and inflammatory markers in 9-month-old TgF344-AD (TgAD) males.

Objective

As multiple studies demonstrated a sex effect in AD, we wanted to validate that LD-RT benefits are also observed in TgAD females analyzed at the same age.

Methods

Females were bilaterally treated with 2 Gy×5 daily fractions, 2 Gy×5 weekly fractions, or 10 fractions of 1 Gy delivered twice a week. The effect of each treatment on amyloid load and inflammation was evaluated using immunohistology and biochemistry.

Results

A daily treatment did not affect amyloid and reduced only microglial-mediated inflammation markers, the opposite of the results obtained in our previous male study. Moreover, altered fractionations (2 Gy×5 weekly fractions or 10 fractions of 1 Gy delivered twice a week) did not influence the amyloid load or neuroinflammatory response in females.

Conclusions

A daily treatment consequently appears to be the most efficient for AD. This study also shows that the anti-amyloid and anti-inflammatory response to LD-RT are, at least partly, two distinct mechanisms. It also emphasizes the necessity to assess the sex impact when evaluating responses in ongoing pilot clinical trials testing LD-RT against AD.


BibTex

https://doi.org/10.3233/jad-231153


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