1. Cleavage of amyloid beta peptide during constitutive processing of its precursor.
- Author
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Esch FS, Keim PS, Beattie EC, Blacher RW, Culwell AR, Oltersdorf T, McClure D, and Ward PJ
- Subjects
- Amino Acid Sequence, Amyloid isolation & purification, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Peptide Fragments isolation & purification, Protein Precursors isolation & purification, Transfection, Amyloid metabolism, Protein Precursors metabolism, Protein Processing, Post-Translational physiology
- Abstract
The amyloid beta peptide (A beta P) is a small fragment of the much larger, broadly distributed amyloid precursor protein (APP). Abundant A beta P deposition in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease suggests that altered APP processing may represent a key pathogenic event. Direct protein structural analyses showed that constitutive processing in human embryonic kidney 293 cells cleaves APP in the interior of the A beta P, thus preventing A beta P deposition. A deficiency of this processing event may ultimately prove to be the etiological event in Alzheimer's disease that gives rise to senile plaque formation.
- Published
- 1990
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