Immunocytochemical analysis of amyloid precursor protein and its derivatives

Histochemical analysis of postmortem human brains from subjects who suffered from dementia led to the discovery of Alzheimer’s disease a century ago. The histological lesions that characterized this common age-related dementia were the accumulation of senile plaques (SPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). Subsequently, NFTs were found in a variety of degenerative diseases of the brain, while plaques remained more unique to Alzheimer’s dementia. The biochemical analysis of plaques in the 1980s led first to the identification of the fundamental componentof plaques, the β -amyloid peptide (A β), 1 followed by the identification of its longer precursor protein, the amyloid precursor protein (APP). 2.