0000000000354465
AUTHOR
Todd E. Golde
Inhibitors of Rho-kinase modulate amyloid-β (Aβ) secretion but lack selectivity for Aβ42
Certain non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) preferentially inhibit production of the amyloidogenic Abeta42 peptide, presumably by direct modulation of gamma-secretase activity. A recent report indicated that NSAIDs could reduce Abeta42 by inhibition of the small GTPase Rho, and a single inhibitor of Rho kinase (ROCK) mimicked the effects of Abeta42-lowering NSAIDs. To investigate whether Abeta42 reduction is a common property of ROCK inhibitors, we tested commercially available compounds in cell lines that were previously used to demonstrate the Abeta42-lowering activity of NSAIDs. Surprisingly, we found that two ROCK inhibitors reduced total Abeta secretion in a dose-dependent m…
Independent Generation of Aβ42 and Aβ38 Peptide Species by γ-Secretase
Proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein by beta- and gamma-secretase generates the amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides, which are principal drug targets in Alzheimer disease therapeutics. gamma-Secretase has imprecise cleavage specificity and generates the most abundant Abeta40 and Abeta42 species together with longer and shorter peptides such as Abeta38. Several mechanisms could explain the production of multiple Abeta peptides by gamma-secretase, including sequential processing of longer into shorter Abeta peptides. A novel class of gamma-secretase modulators (GSMs) that includes some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs has been shown to selectively lower Abeta42 levels withou…
Diverse compounds mimic Alzheimer disease–causing mutations by augmenting Aβ42 production
Increased Abeta42 production has been linked to the development of Alzheimer disease. We now identify a number of compounds that raise Abeta42. Among the more potent Abeta42-raising agents identified are fenofibrate, an antilipidemic agent, and celecoxib, a COX-2-selective NSAID. Many COX-2-selective NSAIDs tested raised Abeta42, including multiple COX-2-selective derivatives of two Abeta42-lowering NSAIDs. Compounds devoid of COX activity and the endogenous isoprenoids FPP and GGPP also raised Abeta42. These compounds seem to target the gamma-secretase complex, increasing gamma-secretase-catalyzed production of Abeta42 in vitro. Short-term in vivo studies show that two Abeta42-raising comp…
Rare coding variants in PLCG2, ABI3, and TREM2 implicate microglial-mediated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease
International audience; We identified rare coding variants associated with Alzheimer's disease in a three-stage case-control study of 85,133 subjects. In stage 1, we genotyped 34,174 samples using a whole-exome microarray. In stage 2, we tested associated variants (P < 1 × 10-4) in 35,962 independent samples using de novo genotyping and imputed genotypes. In stage 3, we used an additional 14,997 samples to test the most significant stage 2 associations (P < 5 × 10-8) using imputed genotypes. We observed three new genome-wide significant nonsynonymous variants associated with Alzheimer's disease: a protective variant in PLCG2 (rs72824905: p.Pro522Arg, P = 5.38 × 10-10, odds ratio (OR) = 0.68…