Thinking outside the amyloid box
Two European groups have proposed strategies for treating Alzheimer's disease that are focused on hitting intermediate protein fragments and enzymatic steps in the pathway that produces b-amyloid.1,2 A team at Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis thinks the goal should be reducing levels of C99, a protein fragment that is a precursor of b-amyloid. A team at Catholic University Leuven expects that hitting a newly identified cofactor of g-secretase can yield the same effect as eliminating C99 and b-amyloid while potentially acting more selectively on the b-amyloid pathway than g-secretase inhibitors.
AD is thought to be driven by the accumulation of b-amyloid (Ab), a toxic fragment of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Thus, blocking Ab production has been a prime approach to treating AD...