Biomaterial Database

Treating Alzheimer's disease by inactivating bioactive amyloid beta peptide. 2006

Yuanbin Liu, and David Schubert

Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory, The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10010 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037-1099, USA. yliu@salk.edu

Treating Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of today's biggest unmet medical needs. The drugs currently available transiently relieve some symptoms but have no significant effects on the progression of the disease. Progress in the past decade suggests that the amyloidogenesis of the inactive monomeric amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) into a subset of toxic Abeta polymers is responsible for neurodegeneration in AD. Not all forms of Abeta aggregates are damaging, for there are patients whose brains accumulated large amounts of Abeta in the form of plaques, but they had no obvious neurodegeneration and symptoms of dementia. Since Abeta can polymerize into many types of polymers or aggregates, the form of Abeta that induces neurodegeneration in AD, defined here as bioactive Abeta, is not clear. Preventing the formation of bioactive Abeta or inactivating previously formed bioactive Abeta is a promising approach for treating AD. This review describes our efforts to develop a cell-based assay for detecting bioactive Abeta, to verify the concept of bioactive Abeta in an animal model of AD and in post mortem brain tissue from AD patients, and to use this assay to screen for drugs that can inactivate bioactive Abeta. These studies show the proof in principle that inactivating bioactive Abeta is a promising approach to treat AD. Several promising compounds that can inactivate bioactive Abeta species are also described.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D010446	Peptide Fragments	Partial proteins formed by partial hydrolysis of complete proteins or generated through PROTEIN ENGINEERING techniques.	Peptide Fragment,Fragment, Peptide,Fragments, Peptide
D002478	Cells, Cultured	Cells propagated in vitro in special media conducive to their growth. Cultured cells are used to study developmental, morphologic, metabolic, physiologic, and genetic processes, among others.	Cultured Cells,Cell, Cultured,Cultured Cell
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000544	Alzheimer Disease	A degenerative disease of the BRAIN characterized by the insidious onset of DEMENTIA. Impairment of MEMORY, judgment, attention span, and problem solving skills are followed by severe APRAXIAS and a global loss of cognitive abilities. The condition primarily occurs after age 60, and is marked pathologically by severe cortical atrophy and the triad of SENILE PLAQUES; NEUROFIBRILLARY TANGLES; and NEUROPIL THREADS. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp1049-57)	Acute Confusional Senile Dementia,Alzheimer's Diseases,Dementia, Alzheimer Type,Dementia, Senile,Presenile Alzheimer Dementia,Senile Dementia, Alzheimer Type,Alzheimer Dementia,Alzheimer Disease, Early Onset,Alzheimer Disease, Late Onset,Alzheimer Sclerosis,Alzheimer Syndrome,Alzheimer Type Senile Dementia,Alzheimer's Disease,Alzheimer's Disease, Focal Onset,Alzheimer-Type Dementia (ATD),Dementia, Presenile,Dementia, Primary Senile Degenerative,Early Onset Alzheimer Disease,Familial Alzheimer Disease (FAD),Focal Onset Alzheimer's Disease,Late Onset Alzheimer Disease,Primary Senile Degenerative Dementia,Senile Dementia, Acute Confusional,Alzheimer Dementias,Alzheimer Disease, Familial (FAD),Alzheimer Diseases,Alzheimer Type Dementia,Alzheimer Type Dementia (ATD),Alzheimers Diseases,Dementia, Alzheimer,Dementia, Alzheimer-Type (ATD),Familial Alzheimer Diseases (FAD),Presenile Dementia,Sclerosis, Alzheimer,Senile Dementia
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D016229	Amyloid beta-Peptides	Peptides generated from AMYLOID BETA-PEPTIDES PRECURSOR. An amyloid fibrillar form of these peptides is the major component of amyloid plaques found in individuals with Alzheimer's disease and in aged individuals with trisomy 21 (DOWN SYNDROME). The peptide is found predominantly in the nervous system, but there have been reports of its presence in non-neural tissue.	Alzheimer beta-Protein,Amyloid Protein A4,Amyloid beta-Peptide,Amyloid beta-Protein,beta Amyloid,beta-Amyloid Protein,Alzheimer's ABP,Alzheimer's Amyloid Fibril Protein,Amyloid AD-AP,Amyloid Fibril Protein, Alzheimer's,Amyloid beta-Proteins,ABP, Alzheimer's,AD-AP, Amyloid,Alzheimer ABP,Alzheimer beta Protein,Alzheimers ABP,Amyloid AD AP,Amyloid beta Peptide,Amyloid beta Peptides,Amyloid beta Protein,Amyloid beta Proteins,Amyloid, beta,Protein A4, Amyloid,Protein, beta-Amyloid,beta Amyloid Protein,beta-Peptide, Amyloid,beta-Peptides, Amyloid,beta-Protein, Alzheimer,beta-Protein, Amyloid,beta-Proteins, Amyloid