γ-Secretase inhibitors repress thymocyte development

A major therapeutic target in the search for a cure to the devastating Alzheimer's disease is γ-secretase. This activity resides in a multiprotein enzyme complex responsible for the generation of Aβ42 peptides, precipitates of which are thought to cause the disease. γ-Secretase is also a critical component of the Notch signal transduction pathway; Notch signals regulate development and differentiation of adult self-renewing cells. This has led to the hypothesis that therapeutic inhibition of γ-secretase may interfere with Notch-related processes in adults, most alarmingly in hematopoiesis. Here, we show that application of γ-secretase inhibitors to fetal thymus organ cultures interferes with T cell development in a manner consistent with loss or reduction of Notch1 function. Progression from an immature CD4^-/CD8^- state to an intermediate CD4⁺/CD8⁺ double-positive state was repressed. Furthermore, treatment beginning later at the double-positive stage specifically inhibited CD8⁺ single-positive maturation but did not affect CD4⁺ single-positive cells. These results demonstrate that pharmacological γ-secretase inhibition recapitulates Notch1 loss in a vertebrate tissue and present a system in which rapid evaluation of γ-secrerase-targeted pharmaceuticals for their ability to inhibit Notch activity can be performed in a relevant context.