BRAIN DISTRIBUTION OF BETA AMYLOID IN HUMAN AND NONHUMAN PRIMATES

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Beta amyloid is a protein that accumulates with age in human cerebral cortex. Beta amyloid is toxic, and its toxicity is thought to be the initiator of the pathological neurodegeneration that characterizes Alzheimer?s disease. Beta amyloid also accumulates in nonhuman primates, but they do not get Alzheimer?s disease. Even great ape species, such as chimpanzees, which can live to 60 years of age or more and can display human-like amyloid accumulations, do not develop the other features of Alzheimer?s pathology. We are investigating what it is about human beta amyloid that renders it so toxic in our species. Specifically, we are comparing the amount and different forms of the beta amyloid peptide that are present in humans and nonhuman primates, and are comparing how the peptide is processed and transported in the brain cells of these different species.