Differential Profile of Systemic Extracellular Vesicles From Sporadic and Familial Alzheimer’s Disease Leads to Neuroglial and Endothelial Cell Degeneration

Abstract

Evidence suggests that extracellular vesicles (EVs) act as mediators and biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases. Two distinct forms of Alzheimer disease (AD) are known: a late-onset sporadic form (SAD) and an early-onset familial form (FAD). Recently, neurovascular dysfunction and altered systemic immunological components have been linked to AD neurodegeneration. Therefore, we characterized systemic-EVs from postmortem SAD and FAD patients and evaluated their effects on neuroglial and endothelial cells. We found increase CLN-5 spots with vesicular morphology in the abluminal portion of vessels from SAD patients. Both forms of AD were associated with larger and more numerous systemic EVs. Specifically, SAD patients showed an increase in endothelial- and leukocyte-derived EVs containing mitochondria; in contrast, FAD patients showed an increase in platelet-derived EVs. We detected a differential protein composition for SAD- and FAD-EVs associated with the coagulation cascade, inflammation, and lipid-carbohydrate metabolism. Using mono- and cocultures (endothelium-astrocytes-neurons) and human cortical organoids, we showed that AD-EVs induced cytotoxicity. Both forms of AD featured decreased neuronal branches area and astrocytic hyperreactivity, but SAD-EVs led to greater endothelial detrimental effects than FAD-EVs. In addition, FAD- and SAD-EVs affected calcium dynamics in a cortical organoid model. Our findings indicate that the phenotype of systemic AD-EVs is differentially defined by the etiopathology of the disease (SAD or FAD), which results in a differential alteration of the NVU cells implied in neurodegeneration.