Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Self-Propagative Replication Of Aβ Oligomers Suggests Potential Transmissibility In Alzheimer Disease, Amit Kumar, Kayla M. Pate, Melissa A. Moss, Dexter N. Dean, Vijayaraghavan Rangachari

Faculty Publications

The aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide and its deposition in parts of the brain form the central processes in the etiology of Alzheimer disease (AD). The low-molecular weight oligomers of Aβ aggregates (2 to 30 mers) are known to be the primary neurotoxic agents whose mechanisms of cellular toxicity and synaptic dysfunction have received substantial attention in the recent years. However, how these toxic agents proliferate and induce widespread amyloid deposition throughout the brain, and what mechanism is involved in the amplification and propagation of toxic oligomer species, are far from clear. Emerging evidence based on transgenic mice models indicates …