PAPER Donix M, Ercoli LM, Siddarth P, Brown JA, Martin-Harris L, Burggren AC, Miller KJ, Small GW, Bookheimer SY

Influence of Alzheimer Disease Family History and Genetic Risk on Cognitive Performance in Healthy Middle-Aged and Older People.

Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2011 Feb 24; PubMed: 21849821

Eliezer Masliah on α-Synuclein occurs physiologically as a helically folded tetramer that resists aggregation.

COMMENT The study of Bartels et al. on α-synuclein is very interesting and provocative, and has the potential to further the understanding of the functional role of α-synuclein. However, given that the study was performed primarily with α-synuclein derived from r

Dennis Selkoe on Amyloid-Blocking Drug Poised for Approval for Rare Disease

COMMENT I am familiar with the tafamidis work and the recent recommendation of its approval for FAP. I view the preclinical and clinical science behind this success as an excellent example of a rationally designed, disease-modifying drug for a progressive, ultima

Kelly Dineley on Role of key aromatic residues in the ligand-binding domain of alpha7 nicotinic receptors in the agonist action of beta-amyloid.

COMMENT This study by Tong et al. provides the first description of amino acid residues that contribute (or not) to the activation of the homomeric α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) by β amyloid (Aβ). Given the mounting evidence that α7 nAChRs and oligo

PAPER O'Leary ME, White MM

Mutational analysis of ligand-induced activation of the Torpedo acetylcholine receptor.

J Biol Chem. 1992 Apr 25;267(12):8360-5. PubMed: 1569088

PAPER Dellisanti CD, Yao Y, Stroud JC, Wang ZZ, Chen L

Crystal structure of the extracellular domain of nAChR alpha1 bound to alpha-bungarotoxin at 1.94 A resolution.

Nat Neurosci. 2007 Aug;10(8):953-62. PubMed: 17643119

PAPER Celie PH, van Rossum-Fikkert SE, van Dijk WJ, Brejc K, Smit AB, Sixma TK

Nicotine and carbamylcholine binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors as studied in AChBP crystal structures.

Neuron. 2004 Mar 25;41(6):907-14. PubMed: 15046723

PAPER Colon W, Lai Z, McCutchen SL, Miroy GJ, Strang C, Kelly JW

FAP mutations destabilize transthyretin facilitating conformational changes required for amyloid formation.

Ciba Found Symp. 1996;199:228-38; discussion 239-42. PubMed: 8915613

Jonathan Kelley

Johnson & Johnson
Belgium

Leta Rosetree

Sierra Madre, United States

An α-Synuclein Twist—Native Protein a Helical Tetramer

RESEARCH NEWS 2011-08-19 Research News Order can come from chaos. Take α-synuclein, a protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and long believed to exist in native form as a monomeric random coil. In the August 14 Nature online, researchers led by Dennis Selkoe at Brigham a

Case Dismissed—NIH Rescues JAX From APPswe Patent Suit

COMMUNITY NEWS 2011-08-19 Community News After the August 12 dismissal of a lawsuit that has stymied distribution of key mouse models, Alzheimer’s disease researchers can breathe a sigh of relief. However, some may still be holding their breath as other allegations of similar pate

Amyloid-Blocking Drug Poised for Approval for Rare Disease

RESEARCH NEWS 2011-08-19 Research News Could the amyloid hypothesis have scored its first success? The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is poised to approve a drug that acts by blocking amyloid formation in a rare inherited disease, familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP). The disea

Bing Morris

State College, United States

Mordhwaj Parihar on Sirt1 overexpression in neurons promotes neurite outgrowth and cell survival through inhibition of the mTOR signaling.

COMMENT Nice paper. 0 mdsparihar