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Journal ArticleDOI

Alzheimer's Disease Is a Synaptic Failure

Dennis J. Selkoe
- 25 Oct 2002 - 
- Vol. 298, Iss: 5594, pp 789-791
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TLDR
Mounting evidence suggests that this syndrome begins with subtle alterations of hippocampal synaptic efficacy prior to frank neuronal degeneration, and that the synaptic dysfunction is caused by diffusible oligomeric assemblies of the amyloid β protein.
Abstract
In its earliest clinical phase, Alzheimer's disease characteristically produces a remarkably pure impairment of memory. Mounting evidence suggests that this syndrome begins with subtle alterations of hippocampal synaptic efficacy prior to frank neuronal degeneration, and that the synaptic dysfunction is caused by diffusible oligomeric assemblies of the amyloid β protein.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Triple-Transgenic Model of Alzheimer's Disease with Plaques and Tangles: Intracellular Aβ and Synaptic Dysfunction

TL;DR: The recapitulation of salient features of AD in these mice clarifies the relationships between Abeta, synaptic dysfunction, and tangles and provides a valuable model for evaluating potential AD therapeutics as the impact on both lesions can be assessed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Protein aggregation and neurodegenerative disease.

TL;DR: There is increased understanding of the pathways involved in protein aggregation, and some recent clues have emerged as to the molecular mechanisms of cellular toxicity, leading to approaches toward rational therapeutics.
Journal ArticleDOI

The classical complement cascade mediates CNS synapse elimination.

TL;DR: It is shown that C1q, the initiating protein in the classical complement cascade, is expressed by postnatal neurons in response to immature astrocytes and is localized to synapses throughout the postnatal CNS and retina, supporting a model in which unwanted synapses are tagged by complement for elimination and suggesting that complement-mediated synapse elimination may become aberrantly reactivated in neurodegenerative disease.
Journal ArticleDOI

Apolipoprotein E and Alzheimer disease: risk, mechanisms and therapy

TL;DR: The A β-dependent and Aβ-independent mechanisms that link Apo-E4 status with AD risk are discussed, and how to design effective strategies for AD therapy by targeting ApO-E is considered.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Mild Cognitive Impairment: Clinical Characterization and Outcome

TL;DR: Patients who meet the criteria for MCI can be differentiated from healthy control subjects and those with very mild AD, and appear to constitute a clinical entity that can be characterized for treatment interventions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Alzheimer's Disease: Genes, Proteins, and Therapy

TL;DR: Evidence that the presenilin proteins, mutations in which cause the most aggressive form of inherited AD, lead to altered intramembranous cleavage of the beta-amyloid precursor protein by the protease called gamma-secretase has spurred progress toward novel therapeutics and provided discrete biochemical targets for drug screening and development.
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Naturally secreted oligomers of amyloid beta protein potently inhibit hippocampal long-term potentiation in vivo.

TL;DR: It is reported that natural oligomers of human Aβ are formed soon after generation of the peptide within specific intracellular vesicles and are subsequently secreted from the cell, indicating that synaptotoxic Aβ oligomers can be targeted therapeutically.
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Physical basis of cognitive alterations in Alzheimer's disease: synapse loss is the major correlate of cognitive impairment.

TL;DR: Both linear regressions and multivariate analyses correlating three global neuropsychological tests with a number of structural and neurochemical measurements performed on a prospective series of patients with Alzheimer's disease and 9 neuropathologically normal subjects reveal very powerful correlations with all three psychological assays.
Journal ArticleDOI

Diffusible, nonfibrillar ligands derived from Aβ1–42 are potent central nervous system neurotoxins

TL;DR: It is hypothesized that impaired synaptic plasticity and associated memory dysfunction during early stage Alzheimer's disease and severe cellular degeneration and dementia during end stage could be caused by the biphasic impact of Abeta-derived diffusible ligands acting upon particular neural signal transduction pathways.
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