A novel correlation between the levels of beta-amyloid protein precursor and tau transcripts in the aged human brain.
beta-Amyloid protein precursor (APP) and tau are implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. We quantified the levels of APP and tau transcripts in the three cortical regions of 38 aged human brains obtained from consecutive autopsied patients. The level of APP mRNA was directly proportional to that of tau mRNA to a remarkable extent, suggesting coordinate expression of the APP and tau genes, whereas much weaker correlations were noted among mRNAs encoding other neuronal proteins. From the previous data on the differential expression of APP and tau mRNAs, the levels of APP-751 and -695 mRNAs were calculated and found to be proportional to those of four-repeat and three-repeat tau mRNAs, respectively, whereas that of APP-770 mRNA was rather constant. These results suggest that the mRNA concentrations of APP isoforms are linked to those of tau isoforms in the aged human brain.
Oyama
F
F
Division of Biomedical Polymer Science, School of Medicine, Fujita Health University, Aichi, Japan.
Shimada
H
H
Oyama
R
R
Titani
K
K
Ihara
Y
Y
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism*; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D016875:tau Proteins