Amyloid-β Protein Precursor Cleavage Products in Postmortem Ventricular Cerebrospinal Fluid of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Abstract

Abstract

Accumulation and aggregation of amyloid-β (Aβ) are considered etiologic processes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the roles of other AβPP cleavage products in disease pathology remain elusive. Here, we measured levels of the major secreted AβPP processing products sAβPPα, sAβPPβ, and Aβ species in postmortem collected ventricular CSF of 196 AD patients and 74 controls. In AD we identified Aβ₄₂ to decrease continuously with progressing Braak stages, whereas Aβ₄₀ was upregulated in early stages of the disease (Braak stage 4) and down-regulated with progressing pathology. Interestingly, both sAβPPα and sAβPPβ were upregulated in AD as compared to controls (sAβPPα, p = 0.02; sAβPPβ, p = 0.01). Moreover, we observed a strong positive correlation of both alternative AβPP processing products, sAβPPα and sAβPPβ (r²= 0.781; p <  0.0001). Together, our results argue for generally enhanced AβPP processing in AD patients and emphasize the necessity of analyzing the roles of all AβPP processing products in AD pathology.