Interplay between Alzheimer’s disease and global glucose metabolism revealed by the metabolic profile alterations of pancreatic tissue and serum in APP/PS1 transgenic mice

Increasing evidence suggests that there is a correlation between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Increased Aβ polypeptide production in AD patients would promote metabolic abnormalities, insulin signaling dysfunction and perturbations in glucose utilization, thus leading to the onset of T2D. However, the metabolic mechanisms underlying the interplay between AD and its diabetes-promoting effects are not fully elucidated. Particularly, systematic metabolomics analysis has not been performed for the pancreas tissues of AD subjects, which play key roles in the glucose metabolism of living systems. In the current study, we characterized the dynamic metabolic profile alterations of the serum and the pancreas of APP/PS1 double-transgenic mice (an AD mouse model) using the untargeted metabolomics approaches. Serum and pancreatic tissues of APP/PS1 transgenic mice and wild-type mice were extracted and subjected to NMR analysis to evaluate the functional state of pancreas in the progress of AD. Multivariate analysis of principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were conducted to define the global and the local (pancreas) metabolic features associated with the possible initiation of T2D in the progress of AD. Our results showed the onset of AD-induced global glucose metabolism disorders in AD mice. Hyperglycemia and its accompanying metabolic disorders including energy metabolism down-regulation and oxidative stress were observed in the serum of AD mice. Meanwhile, global disturbance of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism was detected, and the change of BCAA (leucine) was positively correlated to the alteration of glucose. Moreover, increased level of glucose and enhanced energy metabolism were observed in the pancreas of AD mice. The results suggest that the diabetes-promoting effects accompanying the progress of AD are achieved by down-regulating the global utilization of glucose and interfering with the metabolic function of pancreas. Since T2D is a risk factor for the pathogenesis of AD, our findings suggest that targeting the glucose metabolism dysfunctions might serve as a supplementary therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer’s disease.