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Cholinergic vulnerability, characterized by loss of acetylcholine (ACh), is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous work has suggested that decreasedAChactivity inADmaycontribute to pathological changes through global alterations in alternative splicing. This occurs, at least partially, via the regulation of the expression of a critical protein family in RNA processing, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A/B proteins. These proteins regulate several steps of RNA metabolism, including alternative splicing, RNA trafficking, miRNA export, and gene expression, providing multilevel surveillance in RNA functions. To investigate the mechanism by which cholinergic tone regulates hnRNPA2/B1 expression, we used a combination of genetic mouse models and in vivo and in vitro techniques. Decreasing cholinergic tone reduced levels of hnRNPA2/B1, whereas increasing cholinergic signaling in vivo increased expression of hnRNPA2/B1. This effect was not due to decreased hnRNPA2/B1mRNAexpression, increased aggregation, or degradation of the protein, but rather to decreased mRNA translation by nonsense-mediated decay regulation of translation. Cell culture and knockout mice experiments demonstrated that M1 muscarinic signaling is critical for cholinergic control of hnRNPA2/B1 protein levels. Our experiments suggest an intricate regulation of hnRNPA2/B1 levels by cholinergic activity that interferes with alternative splicing in targeted neurons mimicking deficits found in AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acetylcholine (ACh) is an important neuromodulator in the nervous system implicated in many forms of cognitive and motor processing. Recent studies have used bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic mice expressing channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) protein under the control of the choline acetyltransferase (Ch AT) promoter (ChA T-ChR2-EYFP) to dissect cholinergic circuit connectivity and function using optogenetic approaches. We report that a mouse line used for this purpose also carries several copies of the vesicular acetylcholine transporter gene (VAChT), which leads to overexpression of functional VAChT and consequently increased cholinergic tone. We dem-onstrate that these mice have marked improvement in motor endurance. However, they also present severe cognitive deficits, including attention deficits and dysfunction in working memory and spatial memory. These results suggest that increased VAChT expression may disrupt critical steps in information processing. Our studies demonstrate that ChA T-ChR2-EYFP mice show altered cholinergic tone that fundamentally differentiates them from wild-type mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]