Benjamin Wolozin on Distinct properties of wild-type and the amyloidogenic human cystatin C variant of hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis, Icelandic type.

COMMENT Provide clear and important information on the biochemical mechanisms underlying the accumulation of cystatin C in disease. 0 bwolozin

Paul Coleman on Cortical load of PHF-tau in Alzheimer's disease is correlated to cholinergic dysfunction.

COMMENT It appears the data of this paper may be interpreted in several classes of ways. One class might involve directly causative mechanisms. The other might simply be that as disease progresses the load of PHF-tau increases and the cholinergic deficit also inc

Paul Coleman on Elevated neuronal Cdc2-like kinase activity in the Alzheimer disease brain.

COMMENT This paper appears to be based on the premise that 'tau hyperphosphorylation in AD may result in part from deregulation of Ndlk' (neuronal cdc2-like kinase). Ratio of this kinase activity in prefrontal vs. cerebellare cortex was found to be high

Elliott Mufson on Choline acetyltransferase mRNA expression in the striatal neurons of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

COMMENT Noteworthy. 0 emufson

Hiroshi Mori on Oxidative metabolism in cultured fibroblasts derived from sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients.

COMMENT Changes of redob enzyme associated with AD brain is interesting from the viewpoint that the possilbe radical contribution on AD pathogenesis. 0 mori

Benjamin Wolozin on Essential role for cholesterol in synaptic plasticity and neuronal degeneration.

COMMENT Cholesterol appears to be increasingly important in neurodegeneration, but is understudied. This paper provides novel insight into the manner in which abnormalities in cholesterol metabolism can modulate the biology of proteins involved in neurodegenerati

Carl Cotman on Physiology and pathology of tau protein kinases in relation to Alzheimer's disease.

COMMENT This is an interesting paper which may indicate that A beta has a biphasic action on neurons, e.g. ACh metabolic versus apoptotic 0 cwcotman

Paul Coleman on Two-dimensional map of human brain proteins.

COMMENT This study utilized 2D gels with Coomassie staining to identify 400 'spots' from parietal lobe sample(s?). The authors conclude 'The two-dimensional map may be useful as a reference database to study changes in the protein level caused by V

Paul Coleman on Mitochondrial DNA mutations in Alzheimer's disease.

COMMENT An important area with a number of findings of uncertain value. A recent paper in PNAS (Hirano et al., 1997, 94:14894-14899) indicates that some of the mt mutations previously described may be due to PCR amplification of nuclear mt DNA pseudogenes consequ

Edward Koo on Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

COMMENT Nice study, but confirmatory nonetheless. 0 edkoo

Nikolaos K. Robakis on A protein kinase, PKN, accumulates in Alzheimer neurofibrillary tangles and associated endoplasmic reticulum-derived vesicles and phosphorylates tau protein.

COMMENT Kinases that phosphorylate tau are of great interest for AD as tau hyperphosphorylation is a key pathological event in this disease. 0 nikos.robakis

Paul Coleman on Cytoarchitectonic alterations in the supramarginal gyrus of late onset Alzheimer's disease.

COMMENT One of the first papers showing clearly, with an excellent approach, what was expected: there is a relationship between the presence of tangles and neuronal loss. Also, cognitive impairment is better correlated with the density of tangles than with the ne

Benjamin Wolozin on Reduction of Abeta accumulation in the Tg2576 animal model of Alzheimer's disease after oral administration of the phosphatidyl-inositol kinase inhibitor wortmannin.

COMMENT Wortmannin is too toxic to be used as a therapeutic, but the idea of using such inhibitors is important to be aware of. 0 bwolozin

Elliott Mufson on Aluminum concentrations in drinking water and risk of Alzheimer's disease.

COMMENT Interesting. 0 emufson

Hiroshi Mori on Immunohistochemical localization of neprilysin in the human cerebral cortex: inverse association with vulnerability to amyloid beta-protein (Abeta) deposition.

COMMENT This provides histochemical evidence to support a role of the neprilysin in amyloidogenesis of AD brain. The immunoreactive intensity was not strong but favors its pathological involvement. 0 mori