Estrogen protects neuronal cells from the cytotoxicity induced by acetylcholinesterase‐amyloid complexes

FEBS Letters

Inestrosa, Nibaldo C¹  Bonnefont, Andrea B¹  Muñoz, Francisco J¹ 

[1] Departamento de Biologı́a Celular y Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, P.O. Box 114-D, Santiago, Chile

关键词: Alzheimer's disease;    Amyloid β-protein;    Acetylcholinesterase;    Estrogen;    Neurotoxicity;    PC12 cell;    AChE;    acetylcholinesterase;    Aβ;    amyloid β-peptide;    AD;    Alzheimer's disease;   

DOI  :  10.1016/S0014-5793(98)01552-X

学科分类：生物化学/生物物理

来源: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

【 摘 要 】

The senile plaques present in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are composed of a core of amyloid β-peptide (Aβ) plus several proteins including acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Recently we found that AChE forms complexes with the Aβ peptide in vitro and that these are more cytotoxic than Aβ fibrils alone. Considering that estrogen has been reported to act as a protective agent against Aβ-induced cytotoxicity, the effect of 17β-estradiol was studied in rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) and mouse neuroblastoma (Neuro 2a) cells exposed to either Aβ alone or AChE-Aβ complexes. Estrogen showed a powerful protective effect in response to the challenge of AChE-Aβ complexes as well as with Aβ fibrils. This was also the case for other cytotoxic agents such as glutamate and H₂O₂. Our results suggest a common mechanism for cellular protection by estrogen against the toxicity of both Aβ fibrils and AChE-Aβ complexes, likely avoiding the free radical apoptotic pathway.

【 授权许可】

Unknown