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Elevated β-secretase expression and enzymatic activity detected in sporadic Alzheimer disease

Nature Medicine volume 9, pages 3–4 (2003)Cite this article

To the editor

A critical feature of Alzheimer disease (AD) is the deposition of plaque, which contains high levels of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides1. A small subset of AD patients carry the Swedish mutation2,3 in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene, selectively increasing β-secretase (BACE) cleavage products, of which subsequent cleavage by γ-secretase leads to Aβ formation. Here we demonstrate that BACE is significantly elevated in vivo in rapidly autopsied brains of sporadic AD patients (<3 hours).

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Figure 1: The presence of elevated BACE activity in sporadic AD brains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Haldeman Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology, Sun City, Arizona, USA

    Li-Bang Yang, Kristina Lindholm, Xiao-Li Yang & Yong Shen

  2. Brain Bank and Civin Neuropathology Laboratory, Sun City, Arizona, USA

    Thomas Beach & Lucia Sue

  3. L.J. Roberts Center for Alzheimer's Research, Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, Arizona, USA

    Rena Li

  4. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Pharmacia Corp., Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

    Riqiang Yan

  5. Department of Neuroscience, Amgen, Inc., Thousands Oaks, California, USA

    Martin Citron

  6. Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Weiming Xia

  7. Department of Pathology, Laboratory of Neuropathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Philip Wong & Donald Price

Authors
  1. Li-Bang Yang
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  2. Kristina Lindholm
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  3. Riqiang Yan
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  4. Martin Citron
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  5. Weiming Xia
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  6. Xiao-Li Yang
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  7. Thomas Beach
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  8. Lucia Sue
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  9. Philip Wong
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  10. Donald Price
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  11. Rena Li
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  12. Yong Shen
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Correspondence to Yong Shen.

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Yang, LB., Lindholm, K., Yan, R. et al. Elevated β-secretase expression and enzymatic activity detected in sporadic Alzheimer disease. Nat Med 9, 3–4 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0103-3

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