Acetylcholinesterase in Huntington's and Alzheimer's Diseases: Simultaneous Enzyme Assay and Immunoassay of Multiple Brain Regions

Pamela Hammond, Stephen Brimijoin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Abstract: A newJy developed enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) protein was combined with conventional measures of enzyme activity in a study of 15 brain regions from six control cases (non‐neurological deaths), six cases of Alzheimer's disease, and six cases of Huntington's disease. In the control brains, the mean AChE activity varied 100‐fold from region to region (cortex lowest, striatum highest). The variation in enzyme activity was exactly paralleled by a variation in protein immunoreactivity. Overall, the homospecific activity of AChE averaged 0.26 ± 0.007 mU/pg, close to the value for electrophoretically homogeneous enzyme isolated from red blood cells. Similar homospecific activities were observed in samples from Huntington's and Alzheimer's brains. Evidently, AChE that is immunoreactive but enzymatically inactive does not accumulate in any of the three conditions examined. Huntington's brain samples showed normal total contents of AChE, but Alzheimer's brains showed significant decreases of both enzyme activity and immunore‐activity in all seven cortical regions and in two out of the eight subcortical structures examined, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1111-1116
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of neurochemistry
Volume50
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1988

Keywords

  • Acetylcholinesterase
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Enzyme assay
  • Huntington's disease
  • Immunoassay

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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