Potential Therapeutic Strategies to Prevent the Progression of Alzheimer to Disease States

Senile plaques are mainly composed of different species of fibrillar β-amyloid (Aβ), a product of the cleavage of the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP), and they are surrounded by dystrophic neurites, reactive astrocytes and microglia. Aβ fibrillar deposits also occur in diffuse plaques, subpial deposits and in the wall of the cerebral and meningeal blood vessels in the form of amyloid angiopathy. A substantial part of β-amyloid is not fibrillar but soluble and forms oligomers of differing complexity which are toxic to nerve cells.