Abstract
Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) oligomerization has a profound role in Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology. Biophysical studies have shown that smaller sized inhaled anesthetics promote oligomerization by inducing perturbation of three critical amino acid residues (G29, A30, and I31) located in the helix-loop-helix domain of Aβ. In this present experimental study, using state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance, we have monitored the influence of a larger sized intravenous anesthetic, diazepam, as well as diazepam co-administered with halothane, on Aβ. It was concluded that diazepam (in isolation) does not interact with the G29, A30, and I31 residues, and no Aβ oligomerization occurs in the presence of 0.101 mM diazepam, even after 63 days. However, when diazepam was co-administered with halothane, profound Aβ oligomerization is observed. These results strengthen the hypothesis that the presence of smaller molecular sized anesthetic is instrumental in promoting Aβ oligomerization even when co-administered with a larger sized anesthetic, namely diazepam.
An erratum for this article can be found in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease 20(4), 2010, p. 1261.
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