0000000000148797
AUTHOR
Selina Sohre
The pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease derive from compensatory responses to NMDA receptor insufficiency
AbstractAlzheimer’s disease is characterized by intracellular aggregates of hyperphosphorylated tau protein and extracellular plaques of amyloid β peptide, a product of APP processing. The origin of these pathological hallmarks has remained elusive. Here, we have tested the idea that both alterations, at the onset of the disease, may constitute compensatory responses to the same causative and initial trigger, namely NMDA receptor insufficiency. Treatment of rat cortical neurons with the specific NMDA receptor antagonist AP5 within 4 h caused a significant increase in tau phosphorylation at the AT8 and S404 epitopes as well as an increase in APP expression and Aβ 40 secretion. Single intrape…
Prooxidative chain transfer activity by thiol groups in biological systems
Cysteine is arguably the best-studied biological amino acid, whose thiol group frequently participates in catalysis or ligand binding by proteins. Still, cysteine's unusual biological distribution has remained mysterious, being strikingly underrepresented in transmembrane domains and on accessible protein surfaces, particularly in aerobic life forms (“cysteine anomaly”). Noting that lipophilic thiols have been used for decades as radical chain transfer agents in polymer chemistry, we speculated that the rapid formation of thiyl radicals in hydrophobic phases might provide a rationale for the cysteine anomaly. Hence, we have investigated the effects of dodecylthiol and related compounds in i…