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Alzheimer's disease

A prion protein connection

Nature volume 457, pages 1090–1091 (2009)Cite this article

More than 20 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, yet its causes remain mostly uncertain. Fresh findings provide molecular clues, linking this disease to another neurodegenerative disorder.

Investigations of the causes of Alzheimer's disease yield one culprit time and time again: abnormal build-up of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides in the brain. Small, soluble aggregates of Aβ — Aβ oligomers — impair memory by disrupting memory-related functions of synaptic junctions between neurons1,2,3. But whether specific receptors mediate these adverse effects has remained unknown. In this issue, Laurén et al.4 (page 1128) show that the prion protein might mediate the pathogenic effects of Aβ oligomers.

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Figure 1: PrP and Aβ-induced synaptic toxicity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moustapha Cisse and Lennart Mucke are at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and in the Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94158, USA. lmucke@gladstone.ucsf.edu,

    Moustapha Cisse & Lennart Mucke

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  1. Moustapha Cisse
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  2. Lennart Mucke
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Cisse, M., Mucke, L. A prion protein connection. Nature 457, 1090–1091 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4571090a

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