Mrak_2001_Neurobiol.Aging_22_903

Interleukin-1 IL-1)-1 is a pluripotent immunomodulatory cytokine that has an initiating role in cellular and humoral immunity in the periphery Il-1 is overexpressed in Alzheimer brain and this overexpression is directly related to plaque formation and progression nonsensical growth of dystrophic neurites and neuronal overexpression of acetylcholinesterase IL-1 has a number of actions relevant to Alzheimer's disease including excessive expression of neuronal Abeta precursor protein and other plaque-associated proteins and induction of astrocyte activation and astrocytic overexpression of S100B These latter events may be related to the overgrowth of dystrophic neurites in neuritic plaques a necessary event for conversion of diffuse Abeta deposits into the neuritic amyloid plaques diagnostic of Alzheimer's disease Four new genetic studies underscore the relevance of IL-1 to Alzheimer pathogenesis showing that homozygosity of a specific polymorphism in the IL-1A gene at least triples Alzheimer risk especially for an earlier age of onset and in combination with homozygosity for another polymorphism in the IL-1B gene