Cholesterol

Abstract

The accumulation and aggregation of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the brain are important contributing factors to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Consequently, blocking the generation of Aβ is a potentially important treatment strategy. Recent work on the metabolism of Aβ has identified several cellular proteins and proteases that collectively promote or prevent the generation of Aβ.In addition, accumulating in vitro and in vivo evidence suggests a role for cholesterol in modulating the cellular processing of Aβ with the potential to affect AD.

Keywords

• Alzheimer's disease
• amyloid precursor protein
• amyloid-β peptide
• 24S-cholesterol hydroxylase
• 24-hydroxycholesterol
• apolipoprotein E