A novel metalloprotease in rat brain cleaves the amyloid precursor protein of Alzheimer's disease generating amyloidogenic fragments

Abstract

The amyloid protein (Aβ or βA4) is the major constituent of amyloid plaques in the Alzheimer's disease brain. Aβ is cleaved from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by a mechanism which is poorly understood. Cell culture studies suggest that APP may be cleaved by secretases within the late Golgi compartment. Studies performed so far have mainly used exogenous APP and synthetic peptides as substrates. For this study, a Golgi and plasma membrane-enriched fraction was isolated from rat brain and incubated at 37 °C at pH 7.2 to study the degradation of endogenous APP. The breakdown of APP was accompanied by the concomitant generation of Aβ-containing C- terminal fragments, in a time-dependent fa..