Association between Amylin and Amyloid-[beta] Peptides in Plasma in the Context of Apolipoprotein E4 Allele

Amylin, a pancreatic peptide that readily crosses the blood brain barrier (BBB), and amyloid-beta peptide (A[beta]), the main component of amyloid plaques and a major component of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in the brain, share several features. These include having similar [beta]-sheet secondary structures, binding to the same receptor, and being degraded by the same protease. Thus, amylin may be associated with A[beta], but the nature of their relationship remains unclear. In this study, we used human samples to study the relationship between plasma amylin and A[beta] in the context of the apolipoprotein E alleles (ApoE). We found that concentrations of A[beta]1-42 (P