Over the last decade important progress has been made towards the understanding of the molecular pathobiology of Alzheimer’s Disease. One of the major breakthroughs was the identification of presenilin and its crucial role in the gamma-Secretase processing of APP and Notch. Ever since, it has been a major aim to block gamma-Secretase in a safe way. Recent results of trials, in particular the se...

γ-Secretase is a transmembrane protease complex responsible for the processing of a multitude of type 1 transmembrane proteins, including amyloid precursor protein (APP) and Notch. A functional complex is dependent on the assembly of four proteins: presenilin (PS), nicastrin, Aph-1 and Pen-2. Little is known about how the substrates are selected by γ-secretase, but it has been suggested that γ-...

Presenilin is thought to be the proteolytic component of gamma-secretase, responsible for the intramembranous cleavage of substrates that include the activated Notch receptor. Recent studies have identified the novel protein Nicastrin as another essential component of the Presenilin/gamma-secretase complex.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by extracellular accumulation of amyloid-β peptide (Aβ), generated by proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) by β- and γ-secretase. Aβ generation is inhibited when the initial ectodomain shedding is caused by α-secretase, cleaving APP within the Aβ domain. Therefore, an increase in α-secretase activity is an attractive therapeutic...

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of death for gynecological cancer. Most patients are not diagnosed until the cancer is at an advanced stage with poor prognosis. Notch1 signaling pathway plays an oncogenic role in EOC. There have been few studies on enzymatic activity of γ-secretase and the mechanism of how γ-secretase inhibitor works on cancer cell. Here, we show that Jagge...

The transmembrane protein assembly γ-secretase is a key protease in regulated intramembrane processing (RIP) of around 100 type-1 transmembrane proteins. Importantly, it has a pathological role in Alzheimer disease (AD) as it generates the neurotoxic amyloid β-peptide from the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Studies on γ-secretase location are therefore crucial both from a biological and a the...

Presenilin (PSEN) pathogenic mutations cause familial Alzheimer's disease (AD [FAD]) in an autosomal-dominant manner. The extent to which the healthy and diseased alleles influence each other to cause neurodegeneration remains unclear. In this study, we assessed γ-secretase activity in brain samples from 15 nondemented subjects, 22 FAD patients harboring nine different mutations in PSEN1, and 1...

Aberrant cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by γ-secretase contributes to the development of Alzheimer's disease. More than 200 disease-derived mutations have been identified in presenilin (the catalytic subunit of γ-secretase), making modulation of γ-secretase activity a potentially attractive therapeutic opportunity. Unfortunately, the technical challenges in dealing with intact γ-se...

Alzheimer disease (AD) is an age-related disorder. Aging and female gender are two important risk factors associated with sporadic AD. However, the mechanism by which aging and gender contribute to the pathogenesis of sporadic AD is unclear. It is well known that genetic mutations in gamma-secretase result in rare forms of early onset AD due to the aberrant production of Abeta42 peptides, which...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Amyloid-β protein (Aβ) is identified as the core protein of neuritic plaques. Aβ is generated by the sequential cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) via the APP cleaving enzyme (α-secretase, or β-secretase) and γ-secretase. Previous studies indicated that folate deficiency elevated Aβ deposition in APP/PS1 mice, and this r...