Amyloid Precursor Protein Essay

Amyloid Precursor Protein Essay

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) has many functions and regulations. This protein is involved in neural development. Many may know it for its involvement in the pathology of Alzheimer disease as well as other neurodegenerative diseases. However, APP is a developmental gene. This gene regulates neurons, their differentiation as well as migration. This gene is also involved in neurite outgrowth and the regulation of synaptic function (1). Despite knowledge of these functions, many functions of APP is still unclear (2).

Structure:

APP is a member of conserved type 1 membrane proteins which also includes amyloid precursor–like proteins 1 and 2, APLP1 and APLP2 (human), Appl (fly), and apl–1 (worm). They each contain a large extracellular ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...Additionally, studies have also demonstrated a role for APPs in regulating stem cells. APP encourages the differentiation of neural stem cells into astrocytic lineage (2). In human embryonic stem cells, the over expression of APP or its soluble forms causes fast and strong differentiation towards a neural fate (1). Another function of this protein that have been found in some studies was that APP was shown to undergo rapid axonal transport to synaptic sites. Moreover, APP was found in vesicular sections of dendrites and axons. This suggests a possible role for APP in synaptic function (1). These functions of APP are shown to be involved in neural development. Therefore, APP is a complex protein that posses many functions, many of which are still not very well understood.

Fig 1: Summary of the roles of APP and its metabolites during neural development



As mentioned earlier APP is found to be involved in neural development. The functions discussed above have shown how. During early development, the expression pattern of APP in neuroblasts and neurons in the neural tube suggests a role in neurogenesis, including neural proliferation, differentiation and axonal outgrowth (7). Figure 1 shows neural development from early stages. It shows how APP and APP metabolites play important roles during the different stages of neural development. The stages range from neural proliferation to the formation of a functional synapse. The metabolites that posses

... Get more on HelpWriting.net ...