216 RESULTS
COMMENT Presenilin cleaves both APP and Notch, but the corresponding Nbeta peptide has never been identified. This manuscript shows a striking concordance between Notch processing and APP processing and identifies the long sought-after Nbeta peptide. Very interes
COMMENT Prior to the 1980s, the cause of death of elderly demented individuals was commonly listed as pneumonia. In the 1980s, Alzheimer disease gained increasing attention, in part due to the tireless efforts of pathologists, such as Robert Terry, and neurologis
COMMENT This week marks publication of a provocative study by Sparks et al. (Sparks et al., 2005). This study suggests that treatment with atorvastatin reduces the progression of Alzheimer disease (AD) in subjects with mild to moderate forms of the disease. The r
COMMENT I think that the general approach is a real tour de force, and could usher in a potential wave of corrective gene therapy, particularly for developmental disorders that can be identified in utero, or for disorders that affect the immune system, where immu
COMMENT Increasing attention has been focused on the role of LXR in neurodegeneration. LXR is a transcription factor whose activity is controlled by the class of cholesterol catabolites termed oxysterols. LXR regulates many genes relevant to lipid metabolism incl
COMMENT The paper by Cole and colleagues is a very elegant manuscript because it provides important new insights into how statins might affect APP processing. The observation that inhibition of isoprenoid metabolism increases intracellular Aβ accumulation is surp
COMMENT Statins are known to increase secretion of APP, but the mechanism by which this occurs is poorly understood [1]. The current manuscript by Pedrini et al. focuses on the effect of statins on Rho and Rho-associated coiled-coil containing kinase 1 (ROCK). Th
COMMENT Finding the conditions that allow ES cells to maintain their dopaminergic phenotype in vivo has proved to be a challenge. If Takagi and colleagues have found a method of doing so, it would represent an important advance for the field. However, the fact th
COMMENT This paper adds to an increasing body of literature indicating that chaperones modulate neurodegenerative disease. 0 bwolozin
COMMENT This provides evidence of yet another cholesterol-related protein that might be associated with Alzheimer disease. 0 bwolozin
COMMENT This is interesting because recent manuscripts indicate that some of the ApoE receptors (e.g., R11) are increased in AD. 0 bwolozin
COMMENT This manuscript demonstrates a fascinating link between lipid homeostasis and APP processing. Previous work shows that BACE activity is modulated by cholesterol, and loss of presenilins change the metabolism of long chain fatty acids. This manuscript adds
COMMENT This interesting article by Hoglund and colleagues shows that statins do not lower plasma Aβ levels in patients treated with statins. The work is well-designed and well-controlled. The investigators studied two different statins, simvastatin and atorvasta
COMMENT This article provides an intriguing link among aging, oxidation, ceramides, and cholesterol. Mark Mattson’s group analyzed the brain content of sphingomyelin and ceramides in young and old animals. They observed a striking >100-fold increase in the lev
COMMENT This paper by Dong and colleagues yields an impressive result that overexpression of CDCrel1 (also known as SEPT5) leads to the selective neurodegeneration of dopaminergic neurons. CDCrel1 is of unknown function, but was the first identified target protei
