Development of a brain-penetrant G9a methylase inhibitor to target Alzheimer’s disease-associated proteopathology

Abstract Current Aβ-targeting therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) only slow cognitive decline due to poor understanding of AD pathogenesis. Here we describe a mechanism of AD pathogenesis in which the histone methyltransferase G9a noncanonically regulates translation of hippocampal proteins as...

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Main Authors: Ling Xie, Ryan N. Sheehy, Adil Muneer, Yan Xiong, John A. Wrobel, Feng Zhang, Kwang-Su Park, Julia Velez, Jing Liu, Yan-Jia Luo, Brent Asrican, Ping Dong, Ya-Dong Li, Corina Damian, Luis Quintanilla, Yongyi Li, Chongchong Xu, Mohanish Deshmukh, Leon G. Coleman, Guo-Li Ming, Hongjun Song, Zhexing Wen, Jian Jin, Juan Song, Xian Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-05-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59128-z
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Summary:Abstract Current Aβ-targeting therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) only slow cognitive decline due to poor understanding of AD pathogenesis. Here we describe a mechanism of AD pathogenesis in which the histone methyltransferase G9a noncanonically regulates translation of hippocampal proteins associated with AD pathology. Correspondingly, we developed a brain-penetrant inhibitor of G9a, MS1262, which restored both age-related learning & memory and noncognitive functions in multiple AD mouse models. Further, comparison of AD pathology-correlated mouse proteomes with those of AD patients found G9a regulates pathological pathways that promote Aβ and neurofibrillary tangles. This mouse-to-human overlap of G9a regulated AD-associated pathologic proteins supports at the molecular level the efficacy of targeting G9a translational mechanism for treating AD patients. Additionally, MS1262 treatment reversed the AD-characteristic expression or phosphorylation of multiple clinically validated biomarkers of AD that have the potential to be used for early-stage AD diagnosis and companion diagnosis of individualized drug effects.
ISSN:2041-1723