Characterization of novel Amyloid-β [Amyloid-beta] peptide (Aβ) [Abeta] binding ligands

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) was first described by Alois Alzheimer in 1907. He autopsied a heavily demented woman and found large extracellular plaques and intracellular tangles present in the brain (Alzheimer et al., 1995, English translation from Alzheimer, 1907). In 1976, Katzman identified AD as the major cause for dementia. Eight years later, Glenner et al. (1984) discovered the amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide sequence from fibrils from the brains of affected people. Subsequently, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) was discovered and its gene sequence was localized on chromosome 21 (Kang et al., 1987). In 1993, ApoE4 was the first genetic risk factor identified for sporadic AD (Corder et al., 1993). Other mutations in the genes for presenilin 1 (PS1), presenilin 2 (PS2) and APP were characterized to be responsible for autosomal dominant AD (Sherrington et al., 1995; Rogaev et al., 1995; Levy-Lahad et al., 1995).