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TY - JOUR AU - Kang, Jie AU - Lemaire, Hans-Georg AU - Unterbeck, Axel AU - Salbaum, J. Michael AU - Masters, Colin L. AU - Grzeschik, Karl-Heinz AU - Multhaup, Gerd AU - Beyreuther, Konrad AU - Müller-Hill, Benno PY - 1987 DA - 1987/02/01 TI - The precursor of Alzheimer's disease amyloid A4 protein resembles a cell-surface receptor JO - Nature SP - 733 EP - 736 VL - 325 IS - 6106 AB - Alzheimer's disease1 is characterized by a widespread functional disturbance of the human brain. Fibrillar amyloid proteins are deposited inside neurons as neurofibrillary tangles2 and extracel-lularly as amyloid plaque cores2 and in blood vessels2. The major protein subunit (A4) of the amyloid fibril of tangles, plaques and blood vessel deposits is an insoluble, highly aggregating small polypeptide of relative molecular mass 4,5003–6. The same polypep-tide is also deposited in the brains of aged individuals with trisomy 21 (Down's syndrome)3,5,6. We have argued previously that the A4 protein is of neuronal origin and is the cleavage product of a larger precursor protein4,6. To identify this precursor, we have now isolated and sequenced an apparently full-length complementary DNA clone coding for the A4 polypeptide. The predicted precursor consists of 695 residues and contains features characteristic of glycosylated cell-surface receptors. This sequence, together with the localization of its gene on chromosome 21, suggests that the cerebral amyloid deposited in Alzheimer's disease and aged Down's syndrome is caused by aberrant catabolism of a cell-surface receptor. SN - 1476-4687 UR - https://doi.org/10.1038/325733a0 DO - 10.1038/325733a0 ID - Kang1987 ER -