title: How Anticholinergic Drugs Might Promote Alzheimer's Disease: More Amyloid-β and Less Phosphatidylcholine.
abstract: Drugs that block muscarinic cholinergic neurotransmission in the brain can, as a consequence, increase the formation of amyloid-β, and decrease brain levels of phosphatidylcholine (by slowing its synthesis and accelerating its turnover). Both of these effects might cause a decrease in brain synapses, as characterizes and probably underlies the memory disorder of early Alzheimer's disease.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wurtman
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy; D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016229:Amyloid beta-Peptides; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines
keywords: Acetylcholine; amyloid; choline; neurotransmission; synapses; synaptic membrane