Fig. 5

Overexpressed VDAC1 around the Aβ-plaques is localized to neurons. a Schematic presentation of four neuronal markers localized to different compartments within a neuron. b–g Co-immunostaining for VDAC1 and synaptophysin (b), TUBB3, (e) of cortical sections from WT, untreated- and VBIT-4-treated 5 × FAD mice. (i) and (ii) are enlargements to show co-localization of synaptophysin or TUBB3 with VDAC1. Quantitative analysis of synaptophysin IF staining (c) and its mRNA levels (d) and of TUBB3 (g). f Cortical sections from VBIT-4-treated 5 × FAD mouse IF with anti-TUBB3 and VDAC1 showing neurons with their terminals reaching the Aβ plaque. Nuclei were stained with DAPI. h, i Cortical sections from untreated and VBIT-4 treated 5 × FAD mice immunostained for PSD-95 and VDAC1 (h) and PSD-95 quantification analysis (i). Arrows point to dendrites with no overexpressed VDAC1. Results show means ± SEM (n = 3–4 mice), **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.0001. P-value in blue color represents the significance of VBIT-4-treated relative to untreated 5 × FAD mice. NS, not significant