24-OHC-27-OHC and Alzheimer's

Dr. Othman Ghribi and his team at University of North Dakota have just published interesting results regarding the relationship between 24-hydroxycholesterol (24-OHC) and 27-hydroxycholesterol (27-OHC).

27-OHC increased levels of amyloid precursor protein (APP) as well as beta-secretase (BACE1)
the enzyme that cleaves APP to yield Abeta, a molecule that causes alzheimer's.

24-OHC are associated with increased levels of sAPPalpha, suggesting that 24-OHC favors the processing of APP to the non-amyloidogenic pathway.

Futher study of this relationship between 27 and 24-OHC could yield possible targets for decreasing the cleavage of alzheimer's causing proteins and result in more step towards the Azheimer's therapies.

Here's the publication.

Prasanthi JRP, Huls A, Thomasson S, Thompson A, Schommer E, Ghribi O. Differential effects of 24-hydroxycholesterol and 27-hydroxycholesterol on beta-amyloid precursor protein levels and processing in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Molecular Neurodegeneration 2009, 4:1 (6 January 2009).

Image:
Treatment with 24-OHC, but not with 27-OHC, increased ABCA1 and ABCG1 levels. Representative Western blots