Mutant presenilins of Alzheimer's disease increase production of 42-residue amyloid β-protein in both transfected cells and transgenic mice
- 1 January 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Medicine
- Vol. 3 (1), 67-72
- https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0197-67
Abstract
The mechanism by which mutations in the presenilin (PS) genes cause the most aggressive form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is unknown, but fibroblasts from mutation carriers secrete increased levels of the amyloidogenic Aβ42 peptide, the main component of AD plaques. We established transfected cell and transgenic mouse models that coexpress human PS and amyloid β-protein precursor (APP) genes and analyzed quantitatively the effects of PS expression on APP processing. In both models, expression of wild-type PS genes did not alter APP levels, α- and β-secretase activity and Aβ production. In the transfected cells, PS1 and PS2 mutations caused a highly significant increase in Aβ42 secretion in all mutant clones. Likewise, mutant but not wild-type PS1 transgenic mice showed significant overproduction of Aβ42 in the brain, and this effect was detectable as early as 2–4 months of age. Different PS mutations had differential effects on Aβ generation. The extent of Aβ42 increase did not correlate with presenilin expression levels. Our data demonstrate that the preseniiin mutations cause a dominant gain of function and may induce AD by enhancing Aβ42 production, thus promoting cerebral β-amyloidosis.Keywords
This publication has 26 references indexed in Scilit:
- Amyloid β-Protein and the Genetics of Alzheimer's DiseaseJournal of Biological Chemistry, 1996
- Secreted amyloid β–protein similar to that in the senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease is increased in vivo by the presenilin 1 and 2 and APP mutations linked to familial Alzheimer's diseaseNature Medicine, 1996
- New clues to Alzheimer's disease: Unraveling the roles of amyloid and tauNature Medicine, 1996
- Endoproteolysis of Presenilin 1 and Accumulation of Processed Derivatives In VivoNeuron, 1996
- Inhibition of Amyloid β-Protein Production in Neural Cells by the Serine Protease Inhibitor AEBSFNeuron, 1996
- The Swedish mutation causes early-onset Alzheimer's disease by β-secretase cleavage within the secretory pathwayNature Medicine, 1995
- Generation of amyloid β protein from its precursor is sequence specificNeuron, 1995
- Cell-type and Amyloid Precursor Protein-type Specific Inhibition of Aβ Release by Bafilomycin A1, a Selective Inhibitor of Vacuolar ATPasesJournal of Biological Chemistry, 1995
- Mutations associated with a locus for familial Alzheimer's disease result in alternative processing of amyloid beta-protein precursorPublished by Elsevier BV ,1994
- The carboxy terminus of the .beta. amyloid protein is critical for the seeding of amyloid formation: Implications for the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's diseaseBiochemistry, 1993