Structural Study of Membrane Glycoprotein-Precursor of β-Amyloid and Proteins Involved in Its Proteolysis

Alzheimer’s disease is the most widespread form of neurodegenerative disease in the world. Its clinical manifestations are explained by selective degeneration of neurons in the portions of cerebral cortex responsible for cognitive perception and memory. Amyloid peptide is accumulated beyond nerve cells at neuron contact sites into ordered strands (fibrils), forming the so-called amyloid plaques. It is found that amyloid peptide (β-amyloid or Aβ 1–38 –Aβ 1–43 ), which aggregates and forms amyloid plaques in brain, is a product of successive cleavage of membrane glycoprotein-precursor of β-amyloid by β- and γ-secretases in the plasmatic membrane of neurons. The results of structural studies of this process and the main proteins involved in it are considered.