Alzheimer's Disease Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Alzheimer's Disease, including details on diagnosis, memory loss, heredity, treatment, medication.

Etiology of sporadic Alzheimer's disease: somatostatin, neprilysin, and amyloid beta peptide.

Hama E, Saido TC

Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.

We recently demonstrated that amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) is catabolized primarily by a neutral endopeptidase, neprilysin, in the brain and that a neuropeptide, somatostatin (SST), regulates brain Abeta level via modulation of neprilysin activity. Because SST expression in the brain declines upon aging in various mammals including rodents, apes and humans, we hypothesize that the aging-dependent reduction of SST triggers accumulation of Abeta in the brain by suppressing neprilysin action. This hypothesis accounts for the fact that aging is the predominant risk factor for Sporadic Alzheimer's disease.

Published 11 July 2005 in Med Hypotheses, 65(3): 498-500.
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