Take five--BACE and the gamma-secretase quartet conduct Alzheimer's amyloid beta-peptide generation.
In 1959, Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond revolutionized modern jazz music by composing their unforgettable Take Five in 5/4, one of the most defiant time signatures in all music. Of similar revolutionary importance for biomedical and basic biochemical research is the identification of the minimal set of genes required to obtain a deadly time bomb ticking in all of us: Alzheimer's disease. It now appears that one needs to Take Five genes to produce a deadly peptide by a proteolytic mechanism, which paradoxically is otherwise of pivotal importance for development and cell fate decisions.
Haass
Christian
C
Department of Biochemistry, Adolf-Butenandt-Institute, Laboratory for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease Research, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, München, Germany. chaass@pbm.med.uni-muenchen.de
D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D053829:Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases; D010450:Endopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases
D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C469349:PSENEN protein, human; C475154:APH1A protein, human; D053829:Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases; D010450:Endopeptidases; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases; C509280:BACE1 protein, human