BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Thinking outside the amyloid box

December 6, 2012 8:00 AM UTC

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...