Replies to post #2888 on GTC Biotherapeutics (fka GTCB)

[DewDiligence]

>Anyone ever heard of using hBChE as an Alzheimer's therapy?<

This is the first I’ve heard of Alzheimer’s, specifically. However, mblimon commented on some of the potential non-bioterror applications of Protexia in #msg-13578403. Regards, Dew

[DewDiligence]

Here’s an abstract re Protexia in AD
(c/o Biomaven on SI). The full paper
is available at:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1482631

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Butyrylcholinesterase Attenuates Amyloid Fibril Formation In Vitro

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Jun 6;103(23):8628-33.

Diamant S, Podoly E, Friedler A, Ligumsky H, Livnah O, Soreq H.

Department of Biological Chemistry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.

In Alzheimer's disease, both acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) colocalize with brain fibrils of amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptides, and synaptic AChE-S facilitates fibril formation by association with insoluble Abeta fibrils. Here, we report that human BChE and BSP41, a synthetic peptide derived from the BChE C terminus, inversely associate with the soluble Abeta conformers and delay the onset and decrease the rate of Abeta fibril formation in vitro, at a 1:100 BChE/Abeta molar ratio and in a dose-dependent manner. The corresponding AChE synthetic peptide (ASP)40 peptide, derived from the homologous C terminus of synaptic human (h)AChE-S, failed to significantly affect Abeta fibril formation, attributing the role of enhancing this process to an AChE domain other than the C terminus. Circular dichroism and molecular modeling confirmed that both ASP40 and BChE synthetic peptide (BSP)41 are amphipathic alpha-helices. However, ASP40 shows symmetric amphipathicity, whereas BSP41 presented an aromatic tryptophan residue in the polar side of the C terminus. That this aromatic residue is causally involved in the attenuating effect of BChE was further supported by mutagenesis experiments in which (W8R) BSP41 showed suppressed capacity to attenuate fibril formation.

In Alzheimer's disease, BChE may have thus acquired an inverse role to that of AChE by adopting imperfect amphipathic characteristics of its C terminus.
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