Authors
Yueyang Li, Sifei Yu, Kaidong Lu, Yujie Zhang, Mingjie Dong, Yan Peng, Liang Xue, Waleed Alam, Yuxuan Shui, Yi Zhou, Wuyunhan Ma, Meng Bao, Peiming Li, Peiyi Luo, Tiezhan Lu, Jiajia Li, Kang Zhang, Yuying Wang, Shuchen Yang, Nuoya Yin, Francesco Faiola, Zilong Gao, Jingfeng Zhou, Fei Zhao, Yali He, Magdalena J Koziol
Published in
Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). Volume 13. Issue 32. Pages e22572. Epub Mar 12, 2026.
Abstract
Amyloid-beta (Aβ) aggregation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cognitive decline are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its initiating molecular events remain unknown. Given that RNA modifications regulate neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration, we explore their functional role in 5xFAD mice, an Aβ AD model. We discover that N1-methyladenosine (m1A) is the most altered RNA modification, and that its regulator demethylase, ALKBH3 is upregulated. Strikingly, Alkbh3 reduction decreases Aβ plaques and restores cognition. Conversely, elevated ALKBH3 levels, observed in AD patients, compromise neuronal morphology and mitochondrial function by impairing mitophagy (degradation of dysfunctional mitochondria), a known driver of neuronal dysfunction. Mechanistically, we reveal that ALKBH3 removes m1A from PINK1 mRNA, the mitophagy master regulator. Given that ALKBH3 is elevated in human AD, causally linked to mitophagy impairment, and confers neuroprotection when depleted, we present ALKBH3 as a mechanistically validated therapeutic target in AD.
PMID:
41816968
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Sep 2026.
Read full publication at:
Please sign in
to see all details.
Advertisement
Stats
- Recommendations n/a n/a positive of 0 vote(s)
- Views 9
- Comments 0