In a project involving the collaboration of several institutes, research scientists of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have succeeded in gaining further insight in the functioning of endogenous mechanisms that protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease.
It was found that the activity of the enzyme á-secretase is mainly responsible for the protective effect.
"In the past, we postulated that the enzyme á-secretase was involved in preventing the formation of cerebral plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease and also enhanced cerebral functions, such as learning and memory," explained Professor Falk Fahrenholz of the Institute of Biochemistry. His research group has been working in cooperation with the Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the university's Faculty of Medicine and the Central Animal Laboratory Facility (ZVTE) to discover the mechanism for the beneficial effects of á-secretase. The Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (JAD) presents the results of this project in its February 2009 issue.
á-secretase is an endogenous enzyme that is present in the nerve cells of the brain, where it is responsible for the cleavage of an Aâ into Aâ domain. The result is a soluble protein fragment that promotes the growth of nerve cells and thus prevents the development of cerebral deterioration caused by Aâ. However, if the enzyme â-secretase is active, a chain reaction is initiated that subsequently results in the development Aâ initializing the cascade of Alzheimer's disease through formation of Aâ. "You could say that á-secretase is the good enzyme, and â-secretase the bad en-zyme," Fahrenholz commented. "We now want to find out how to activate this 'good' enzyme or increase its concentrations in the brain as a way of combating this disease."