Using this new technique in mice, the team discovered that the relationship between levels of a key molecule involved in Alzheimer's disease, amyloid-beta (ABeta), in interstitial fluid and cerebrospinal fluid changes as the disease progresses. Cerebrospinal fluid - the fluid that cushions and surrounds the brain is a main focus in efforts to diagnose and possibly treat Alzheimer's disease.
"The most exciting part of this study is that we now have a way to measure a pool of ABeta that previously could not be evaluated," says John R. Cirrito, a graduate student in neuroscience. "Using this new approach, we were able to identify another difference between young mice that have not yet developed Alzheimer's-like changes and those that have developed Alzheimer's-like brain changes, which provides a new opportunity to explore the development of this disease."
Cirrito is first author of the study, which will be published in the Oct. 1 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The principal investigator is David M. Holtzman, M.D., the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor of Neurology and head of the Department of Neurology, the Charlotte and Paul Hagemann Professor of Neurology and a professor of molecular biology and pharmacology. Collaborators at Lilly include Patrick May, Ph.D., Ronald DeMattos, Ph.D., Kelly Bales and Steven Paul, M.D.
A key step in the development of Alzheimer's disease is the formation of sticky, senile plaques in the brain, composed primarily of clumps of ABeta. Although these plaques are believed to form at least in part in the spac
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Contact: Gila Z. Reckess
reckessg@msnotes.wustl.edu
314-286-0109
Washington University School of Medicine
30-Sep-2003