Restoring hippocampal glucose metabolism rescues cognition across Alzheimer's disease pathologies.

Minhas PS, Jones JR, Latif-Hernandez A, Sugiura Y, Durairaj AS, Wang Q, Mhatre SD, Uenaka T, Crapser J, Conley T, Ennerfelt H, Jung YJ, Liu L, Prasad P, Jenkins BC, Ay YA, Matrongolo M, Goodman R, Newmeyer T, Heard K, Kang A, Wilson EN, Yang T, Ullian EM, Serrano GE, Beach TG, Wernig M, Rabinowitz JD, Suematsu M, Longo FM

Science (New York, N.Y.) 2024

Open on PubMed

Impaired cerebral glucose metabolism is a pathologic feature of Alzheimer's disease (AD), with recent proteomic studies highlighting disrupted glial metabolism in AD. We report that inhibition of indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1), which metabolizes tryptophan to kynurenine (KYN), rescues hippocampal memory function in mouse preclinical models of AD by restoring astrocyte metabolism. Activation of astrocytic IDO1 by amyloid β and tau oligomers increases KYN and suppresses glycolysis in an aryl hydrocarbon receptor-dependent manner. In amyloid and tau models, IDO1 inhibition improves hippocampal glucose metabolism and rescues hippocampal long-term potentiation in a monocarboxylate transporter-dependent manner. In astrocytic and neuronal cocultures from AD subjects, IDO1 inhibition improved astrocytic production of lactate and uptake by neurons. Thus, IDO1 inhibitors presently developed for cancer might be repurposed for treatment of AD.