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Qualitative changes in human γ-secretase underlie familial Alzheimer's disease

Szaruga, M; Veugelen, S; Benurwar, M; Lismont, S; Sepulveda-Falla, D; Lleo, A; Ryan, NS; ... Chávez-Gutiérrez, L; + view all (2015) Qualitative changes in human γ-secretase underlie familial Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Experimental Medicine , 212 (12) pp. 2003-2013. 10.1084/jem.20150892. Green open access

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Abstract

Presenilin (PSEN) pathogenic mutations cause familial Alzheimer's disease (AD [FAD]) in an autosomal-dominant manner. The extent to which the healthy and diseased alleles influence each other to cause neurodegeneration remains unclear. In this study, we assessed γ-secretase activity in brain samples from 15 nondemented subjects, 22 FAD patients harboring nine different mutations in PSEN1, and 11 sporadic AD (SAD) patients. FAD and control brain samples had similar overall γ-secretase activity levels, and therefore, loss of overall (endopeptidase) γ-secretase function cannot be an essential part of the pathogenic mechanism. In contrast, impaired carboxypeptidase-like activity (γ-secretase dysfunction) is a constant feature in all FAD brains. Significantly, we demonstrate that pharmacological activation of the carboxypeptidase-like γ-secretase activity with γ-secretase modulators alleviates the mutant PSEN pathogenic effects. Most SAD cases display normal endo- and carboxypeptidase-like γ-secretase activities. However and interestingly, a few SAD patient samples display γ-secretase dysfunction, suggesting that γ-secretase may play a role in some SAD cases. In conclusion, our study highlights qualitative shifts in amyloid-β (Aβ) profiles as the common denominator in FAD and supports a model in which the healthy allele contributes with normal Aβ products and the diseased allele generates longer aggregation-prone peptides that act as seeds inducing toxic amyloid conformations.

Type: Article
Title: Qualitative changes in human γ-secretase underlie familial Alzheimer's disease
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1084/jem.20150892
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1084/jem.20150892
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2015 Szaruga et al. This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).
Keywords: Adult, Aged, Alzheimer Disease, Amyloid, Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor, Animals, Blotting, Western, Brain, Carboxypeptidases, Cells, Cultured, Female, Humans, Male, Mice, Knockout, Middle Aged, Mutation, Presenilin-1
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Neurodegenerative Diseases
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UK Dementia Research Institute HQ
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1478935
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