Cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease related?

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Hi All,

Cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease-is there a relation?

The pdf is not available for the below paper.

Sjogren M, Mielke M, Gustafson D, Zandi P, Skoog I.

Cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease-is there a relation?

Mech Ageing Dev. 2005 Dec 2; [Epub ahead of print]

PMID: 16332384

The predominating theory on the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD)

concerns

the mis-metabolism of amyloid precursor protein (APP). As a result of this

mis-metabolism, there is an increased production of the 42 amino acid form of

beta-amyloid (Abeta42) that rapidly will form oligomers that initiates a cascade

of

events leading to the accumulation of amyloid plaques. Commonly recognised as

vascular factors, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and diabetes and the

inheritance of the varepsilon4 allele of the APOE gene, are also risk factors

for

AD. These risks have been found to promote the production of Abeta42. An

association

between cholesterol and the development of AD was suggested in the early 1990s

and

ever since, an increasing amount of research has confirmed that there is a link

between cholesterol and the development of AD. A high cholesterol levels in

mid-life

is a risk for AD and statins, i.e., cholesterol-lowering drugs, reduce this

risk.

Statins may not only inhibit enzymes involved in the endogenous synthesis of

cholesterol but also affect enzymes involved in Abeta metabolism, i.e.,

alpha-secretase and beta-secretase. This normalises the breakdown of APP thereby

promoting the non-amyloidogenic pathway. In this review, investigations focusing

on

cholesterol and Alzheimer's disease are presented.

Al Pater, PhD; email: old542000@...

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