In the recent years one of the lines of in
vestigation in the Neur
obiology Laboratory
at SISSA has been to study the molecular det
erminants of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD),
one of the most known and diffused neur
odegenerative aging diseases. AD is
characterized by lesions in the brai
n cortex, including the presence of
β
-amyloid
plaques and neurofibrillary tangles c
ontaining phosphorylated tau protein.
In Alzheimer’s disease neuronal degeneration
is found in selected areas of the
brain, in particular in cortical, hippocam
pal and basal forebrain cholinergic neurons
(reviewed in Price
et al
., Ann. Rev. Neurosci., 1986)
. The investigation on the
involvement of the neurotrophin Nerve Gr
owth Factor (NGF) in AD has been
extensive, because it promotes
the survival and regulates
the function of cholinergic
neurons of the basal forebr
ain. (reviewed in Counts
et al.
, J. Neuropath. Exp. Neuro.,
2005).
NGF is translated as a pre-
pro-protein, proNGF, the im
portance of which in the
recent years has grown much, thanks to impor
tant findings on its bi
ological functions,
besides the one of promoting protein foldin
g. Accordingly, the
increasing number of
involved new actors has complicated also t
he scenario of the investigations on the
molecular determinants in AD.
