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      Inconsistencies and Controversies Surrounding the Amyloid Hypothesis of Alzheimer's Disease

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          Abstract

          The amyloid hypothesis has driven drug development strategies for Alzheimer's disease for over 20 years. We review why accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) oligomers is generally considered causal for synaptic loss and neurodegeneration in AD. We elaborate on and update arguments for and against the amyloid hypothesis with new data and interpretations, and consider why the amyloid hypothesis may be failing therapeutically. We note several unresolved issues in the field including the presence of Aβ deposition in cognitively normal individuals, the weak correlation between plaque load and cognition, questions regarding the biochemical nature, presence and role of Aβ oligomeric assemblies in vivo, the bias of pre-clinical AD models toward the amyloid hypothesis and the poorly explained pathological heterogeneity and comorbidities associated with AD. We also illustrate how extensive data cited in support of the amyloid hypothesis, including genetic links to disease, can be interpreted independently of a role for Aβ in AD. We conclude it is essential to expand our view of pathogenesis beyond Aβ and tau pathology and suggest several future directions for AD research, which we argue will be critical to understanding AD pathogenesis.

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          Most cited references175

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          Gene dose of apolipoprotein E type 4 allele and the risk of Alzheimer's disease in late onset families.

          The apolipoprotein E type 4 allele (APOE-epsilon 4) is genetically associated with the common late onset familial and sporadic forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Risk for AD increased from 20% to 90% and mean age at onset decreased from 84 to 68 years with increasing number of APOE-epsilon 4 alleles in 42 families with late onset AD. Thus APOE-epsilon 4 gene dose is a major risk factor for late onset AD and, in these families, homozygosity for APOE-epsilon 4 was virtually sufficient to cause AD by age 80.
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            Inflammation and Alzheimer's disease.

            Inflammation clearly occurs in pathologically vulnerable regions of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain, and it does so with the full complexity of local peripheral inflammatory responses. In the periphery, degenerating tissue and the deposition of highly insoluble abnormal materials are classical stimulants of inflammation. Likewise, in the AD brain damaged neurons and neurites and highly insoluble amyloid beta peptide deposits and neurofibrillary tangles provide obvious stimuli for inflammation. Because these stimuli are discrete, microlocalized, and present from early preclinical to terminal stages of AD, local upregulation of complement, cytokines, acute phase reactants, and other inflammatory mediators is also discrete, microlocalized, and chronic. Cumulated over many years, direct and bystander damage from AD inflammatory mechanisms is likely to significantly exacerbate the very pathogenic processes that gave rise to it. Thus, animal models and clinical studies, although still in their infancy, strongly suggest that AD inflammation significantly contributes to AD pathogenesis. By better understanding AD inflammatory and immunoregulatory processes, it should be possible to develop anti-inflammatory approaches that may not cure AD but will likely help slow the progression or delay the onset of this devastating disorder.
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              Immunization with amyloid-beta attenuates Alzheimer-disease-like pathology in the PDAPP mouse.

              Amyloid-beta peptide (Abeta) seems to have a central role in the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Familial forms of the disease have been linked to mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and the presenilin genes. Disease-linked mutations in these genes result in increased production of the 42-amino-acid form of the peptide (Abeta42), which is the predominant form found in the amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's disease. The PDAPP transgenic mouse, which overexpresses mutant human APP (in which the amino acid at position 717 is phenylalanine instead of the normal valine), progressively develops many of the neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease in an age- and brain-region-dependent manner. In the present study, transgenic animals were immunized with Abeta42, either before the onset of AD-type neuropathologies (at 6 weeks of age) or at an older age (11 months), when amyloid-beta deposition and several of the subsequent neuropathological changes were well established. We report that immunization of the young animals essentially prevented the development of beta-amyloid-plaque formation, neuritic dystrophy and astrogliosis. Treatment of the older animals also markedly reduced the extent and progression of these AD-like neuropathologies. Our results raise the possibility that immunization with amyloid-beta may be effective in preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                g.morris@garvan.org.au
                ian.clark@anu.edu.au
                brycevissel@gmail.com
                Journal
                Acta Neuropathol Commun
                Acta Neuropathol Commun
                Acta Neuropathologica Communications
                BioMed Central (London )
                2051-5960
                18 September 2014
                18 September 2014
                2014
                : 2
                : 1
                : 135
                Affiliations
                [ ]Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Neuroscience Department, Neurodegenerative Disorders Laboratory, 384 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010 Australia
                [ ]Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
                [ ]Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
                Article
                135
                10.1186/s40478-014-0135-5
                4207354
                25231068
                2d0b9b3a-e184-4792-af72-aceafa28fa51
                © Morris et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

                History
                : 28 August 2014
                : 30 August 2014
                Categories
                Review
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2014

                alzheimer's disease,amyloid hypothesis,amyloid beta,neurofibrilliary tangles,tau,synapse,microglia,astrocytes,neuroinflammation,tnf,neurodegeneration,amyloid precursor protein,plaque

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