A␤ 1-42 is a self-associating peptide whose neurotoxic derivatives are thought to play a role in Alzheimer's pathogenesis. Neurotoxicity of amyloid ␤ protein (A␤) has been attributed to its fibrillar forms, but experiments presented here characterize neurotoxins that assemble when fibril formation is inhibited. These neurotoxins comprise small diffusible A␤ oligomers (referred to as ADDLs, for A␤-derived diffusible ligands), which were found to kill mature neurons in organotypic central nervous system cultures at nanomolar concentrations. At cell surfaces, ADDLs bound to trypsin-sensitive sites and surface-derived tryptic peptides blocked binding and afforded neuroprotection. Germ-line knockout of Fyn, a protein tyrosine kinase linked to apoptosis and elevated in Alzheimer's disease, also was neuroprotective. Remarkably, neurological dysfunction evoked by ADDLs occurred well in advance of cellular degeneration. Without lag, and despite retention of evoked action potentials, ADDLs inhibited hippocampal long-term potentiation, indicating an immediate impact on signal transduction. We hypothesize that impaired synaptic plasticity and associated memory dysfunction during early stage Alzheimer's disease and severe cellular degeneration and dementia during end stage could be caused by the biphasic impact of A␤-derived diffusible ligands acting upon particular neural signal transduction pathways.

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1. Hepatocytes from starved rats or fed rats whose glycogen content was previously depleted by phlorrhizin or by glucagon injections, form glycogen at rapid rates when incubated with 10mM-glucose, gluconeogenic precursors (lactate, glycerol, fructose etc.) and glutamine. There is a net synthesis of glucose and glycogen. 14C from all three types of substrate is incorporated into glycogen, but the incorporation from glucose represents exchange of carbon atoms, rather than net incorporation. 14C incorporation does not serve to measure net glycogen synthesis from any one substrate. 2. With glucose as sole substrate net glucose uptake and glycogen deposition commences at concentrations of about 12--15mM. Glycogen synthesis increases with glucose concentrations attaining maximal values at 50--60mM, when it is similar to that obtained in the presence of 10mM glucose and lactate plus glutamine. 3. The activities of the active (a) and total (a+b) forms of glycogen synthase and phosphorylase were monitored concomitant with glycogen synthesis. Total synthase was not constant during a 1 h incubation period. Total and active synthase activity increased in parallel with glycogen synthesis. 4. Glycogen phosphorylase was assayed in two directions, by conversion of glycose 1-phosphate into glycogen and by the phosphorylation of glycogen. Total phosphorylase was assyed in the presence of AMP or after conversion into the phosphorylated form by phosphorylase kinase. Results obtained by the various methods were compared. Although the rates measured by the procedures differ, the pattern of change during incubation was much the same. Total phosphorylase was not constant. 5. The amounts of active and total phosphorylase were highest in the washed cell pellet. Incubation in an oxygenated medium, with or without substrates, caused a prompt and pronounced decline in the assayed amounts of active and total enzyme. There was no correlation between phosphorylase activity and glycogen synthesis from gluconeogenic substrates. With fructose, active and total phosphorylase activities increased during glycogen syntheses. 6. In glycogen synthesis from glucose as sole substrate there was a decline in phosphorylase activities with increased glucose concentration and increased rates of glycogen deposition. The decrease was marked in cells from fed rats. 7. To determine whether phosphorolysis and glycogen synthesis occur concurrently, glycogen was prelabelled with [2-3H,1-14C]-galactose. During subsequent glycogen deposition there was no loss of activity from glycogen in spite of high amounts of assayable active phosphorylase.

1. The metabolism of glucose labeled uniformly with I4C, and in positions 2, 3 and 5 with tritium by hepatocytes from fed and fasted rats were studied. Cells were incubated with glucose as sole substrate, or with glucose and a variety of glucose precursors, and uptake or production of glucose, and the utilization of the isotopes was determined.2. There was no uptake of glucose at concentration of up to 15 mM, and net glucose synthesis in the presence of precursors. I4C was however recovered in COz, lactate and amino acids, and tritium in water. Considerable incorporation into glycogen from '"C and 3H-labeled glucose occurred at high (above 20 mM) glucose concentrations.3. The yield in water always exceeded that in I4C-labeled products. The yield in 3HOH from [2-3H]glucose exceeded that from [5-3H]glucose, and the latter was greater than from [3-3H]glucose.4. Utilization of labeled glucose does not follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The fractional rate of uptake of 14C and tritium-labeled glucose increases with glucose concentration with a maximum at about 15 mM and then declines.5. The effect of numerous gluconeogenic substrates on the isotope utilization and the 3H/14C ratio in glycogen was studied. The uptake of I4C was always depressed. Addition of lactate and dihydroxyacetone has little effect on the detritiation of [2-3H] 6. Equations to calculate the phosphorylation of glucose and fructose 6-phosphate in the presence of futile cycling between glucose and glucose 6-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate and fructose 1,6-bisphosphate were derived.7. The estimate of glucose phosphorylation requires determination of the specific activity of glucose 6-phosphate from [2-3H]glucose. It appears that futile cycling between glucose and glucose 6-phosphate is extensive in cells with a high glycogen content, but is low in cells from starved rats and nearly absent in those from diabetic animals.8. The estimation of the phosphorylation of fructose 6-phosphate in the presence of cycling requires knowledge of the specific activities of fructose 6-phosphate and fructose 1,6-bisphosphate from [3-3H]glucose. At present there are no adequate data to calculate phosphorylation and recycling of fructose 6-phosphate, but under some conditions the rate may be quite high.Liver contains the full complement of enzymes for glucose synthesis and for glycolysis. Two irreversible steps in glucose metabolism are between glucose and glucose-6-P, and between fructose-6-P and fmctose-1,6-P2. If the kinases and phosphatases catalyzing these conversions were simultaneously active, there would be two futile cycles, namely glucose + glucose-6-P + glucose (the glucose cycle), and fructose-6-P + fructose-l,6-P2 + fructose-6-P (the fructose 6-P cycle). Newsholme and coworkers [l -31 have sugAbbreviations. Glucose-6-P, glucose 6-phosphate; fructose-6-P, fructose 6-phosphate; fructose 1,6-P,, fructose 1,6-bisphosphate; glyceraldehyde-3-P, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate.gested that futile cycles have a role in metabolic regulation. The fructose-6-P cycle serve...