Mechanisms of neurodegeneration - Insights from familial Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD), together with the lack of effective treatments, portray it as one of the major health challenges of our times. Untangling AD implies advancing the knowledge of the biology that gets disrupted during the disease while deciphering the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to AD-related neurodegeneration. In fact, a solid mechanistic understanding of the disease processes stands as an essential prerequisite for the development of safe and effective treatments. Genetics has provided invaluable clues to the genesis of the disease by revealing deterministic genes - Presenilins (PSENs) and the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) - that, when affected, lead in an autosomal dominant manner to early-onset, familial AD (FAD). PSEN is the catalytic subunit of the membrane-embedded γ-secretase complexes, which act as proteolytic switches regulating key cell signalling cascades. Importantly, these intramembrane proteases are responsible for the production of Amyloid β (Aβ) peptides from APP. The convergence of pathogenic mutations on one functional pathway, the amyloidogenic cleavage of APP, strongly supports the significance of this process in AD pathogenesis. Here, we review and discuss the state-of-the-art knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying FAD, their implications for the sporadic form of the disease and for the development of safe AD therapeutics.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Amyloid precursor protein; Amyloid-β; Gamma secretase; Neurodegeneration; Presenilin.