The amyloid fibrils deposited in Alzheimer's neuritic plaque cores and cerebral blood vessels are mainly composed of aggregated forms of a unique peptide, 39-42 amino acids long, named amyloid beta (A beta). A similar, although soluble, A beta ('sA beta') has been identified in cerebrospinal fluid, plasma and cell supernatants, indicating that it is normally produced by proteolytic processing o...

Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible neurodegenerative disease, which accounts for most dementia cases. Neuroinflammation increasingly recognised its roles in pathogenesis which, part, links amyloid-beta to neuronal death. Neuroinflammatory signalling can be exhibited by neurons themselves, potentially leading widespread cell death, although neuroinflammation commonly associated with glial ce...

Amyloid fibril deposition is associated with over 20 degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and prion diseases. Although research over the last few years has revealed the morphology and structural features of the amyloid form, knowledge about the thermodynamics of amyloid formation is limited. Here, we report for the first time a direct thermodynamic study of amyloid formati...

A monoclonal antibody (YK-2), which was previously established to react with apolipoprotein E (apoE) peptides in systemic amyloid deposits, was further characterized. Epitope of this antibody was determined to be the residue 221 to 230 of apoE. In comparison with polyclonal anti-apoE antibodies, this antibody showed strong reactivity with apoE peptides in amyloid fibril preparation but poor rea...

Anti-amyloid-beta immunization leads to amyloid clearance in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but the effect of vaccination on amyloid-beta-induced neuronal pathology has not been quantitatively examined. The objectives of this study were to address the effects of anti-amyloid-beta active immunization on neurite trajectories and the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease in the human h...

beta(2)-Microglobulin-related (A beta 2M) amyloidosis is a frequent and serious complication in patients on long-term dialysis, and beta(2)-microglobulin is a major structural component of A beta 2M amyloid fibrils. Several biologic molecules inhibiting the depolymerization of A beta 2M amyloid fibrils at a neutral pH were found recently. The effect of trifluoroethanol and glycosaminoglycans (G...

Amyloid fibril formation and deposition have been associated with a series of diseases, including Alzheimer ́s, Spongiform encephalopathies, and several systemic amyloidosis. In most of these amyloid diseases, it has been shown that the normal precursor protein, due to proteolysis, mutation or molecular environment stress, undergoes misfolding, leading to molecular species with a high tendency f...