The APP family members are key players in S-adenosylmethionine formation by MAT2A and modify BACE1 and PSEN1 gene expression - relevance for Alzheimer`s disease.

A central hallmark of Alzheimers disease (AD) are senile plaques mainly composed of [beta] amyloid, which is a cleavage product of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). The physiological function of APP and its family members APLP1 and APLP2 is poorly understood. In order to fill this gap, we established a cell-culture based model with simultaneous knockdown of all members of the family. A comprehensive proteome study of the APP/APLP1/APLP2 knockdown cell lysates vs. controls revealed significant protein abundance changes of more than 30 proteins. Targeted validation of selected candidates by immunoblotting supported the significant down-regulation of the methionine adenosyltransferase II, alpha (MAT2A) as well as of peroxiredoxin 4 (PRDX4) in the knockdown cells. Moreover, MAT2A was significantly down-regulated at the mRNA level as well. MAT2A catalyzes the production of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) from methionine and ATP, which plays a pivotal role in the methylation of neurotransmitters, DNA, proteins, and lipids. MAT2A-dependent significant up-regulation of SAM was also detectable in the knockdown cells compared to controls. Our results point to a role of the APP family proteins in cellular methylation mechanisms and fit to findings of disturbed SAM levels in tissue and CSF of Alzheimer disease patients vs. controls. Importantly, methylation plays a central role for neurotransmitter generation like acetylcholine pointing to a crucial relevance of our findings for AD. In addition, we identified differential gene expression of BACE1 and PSEN1 in the knockdown cells, which is possibly a consequence of MAT2A deregulation and may indicate a self regulatory mechanism.