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An update on the toxicity of Aβ in Alzheimer’s disease
Authors Götz J, Ittner LM, Schonrock N, Cappai R
Published 5 December 2008 Volume 2008:4(6) Pages 1033—1042
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S3016
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 9
Jürgen Götz1, Lars M Ittner1, Nicole Schonrock1, Roberto Cappai2
1Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease Laboratory, Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia; 2Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease is characterized histopathologically by deposition of insoluble forms of the peptide Aβ and the protein tau in brain. Aβ is the principal component of amyloid plaques and tau of neurofibrillary tangles. Familial cases of AD are associated with causal mutations in the gene encoding the amyloid precursor protein, APP, from which the amyloidogenic Aβ peptide is derived, and this supports a role for Aβ in disease. Aβ can promote tau pathology and at the same time its toxicity is also tau-dependent. Aβ can adopt different conformations including soluble oligomers and insoluble fibrillar species present in plaques. We discuss which of these conformations exert toxicity, highlight molecular pathways involved and discuss what has been learned by applying functional genomics.
Keywords: amyloid, mitochondria, oligomer, proteomic, tau, transgenic
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