Even though the idea that amyloid beta peptide accumulation is the primary event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease has become the leading hypothesis, the causal link between aberrant amyloid precursor protein processing and tau alterations in this type of dementia remains controversial.
Positron emission tomography with 11C-PiB and magnetic resonance imaging were performed for 2 patients, 49-year-old and 60-year-old siblings with APP locus duplication, with hereditary Alzheimer disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
Although APP mutations associated with inherited forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are relatively rare, detailed studies of these mutations may prove critical for gaining important insights into the mechanism(s) and etiology of AD.
We found that human neural progenitor cells (HNPCs) exposed to high concentrations of amyloid precursor protein (APP) or transplanted into APP transgenic mice (APP23) primarily differentiated into astrocytes, suggesting that pathological alterations of APP processing in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may prevent neuronal differentiation of HNPCs.
The signal on 20p is near the location of the gene coding for cystatin-C, previously shown to be associated with late-onset AD and to codeposit with APP in the brains of patients with AD.
Phosphorylation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) at Thr668 regulates the nuclear translocation of the APP intracellular domain and induces neurodegeneration.
Understanding the molecular mechanism of beta-amyloid (Abeta) generation is crucial for Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis as well as for normal APP function.
Human cerebrospinal fluid apolipoprotein E isoforms are apparently inefficient at complexing with synthetic Alzheimer's amyloid-[beta] peptide (A[beta] 1-40 ) in vitro.
In particular, it is well known that oxidation of methionine 35, is strongly related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, since it represents the residue in the beta-amyloid peptide most susceptible to oxidation "in vivo".