Cholinesterase enzymes in the blood of patients with Alzheimer's disease

Biologic Markers in Alzheimer's Disease

“…One report has been published that tends to confirm the findings of Perry et al 27 of reduced erythrocytic AChE. Smith et al 28 studied 17 SDAT patients and 23 healthy controls, and they reported a 12% decrease of AChE activity in RBC in the Alzheimer group.…”

“…The pseudocholinesterase they studied hydrolyzes propionylcholine and seems to be a different enzyme from the classic plasma cholinesterase, which Perry et al 27 found unchanged in SDAT. The findings by Smith et al 28 require further confirmation. The authors point out that the observed activity increase matches well with the fact that the corresponding pseudocholinesterase of the brain was increased by as much as 80% in cases of advanced SDAT 17 .…”

“…Smith's group also investigated pseudocholinesterase activity in the plasma component. They reported a 101% greater pseudocholinesterase activity in the plasma of the SDAT patients compared with the healthy age‐matched control group 28 . The pseudocholinesterase they studied hydrolyzes propionylcholine and seems to be a different enzyme from the classic plasma cholinesterase, which Perry et al 27 found unchanged in SDAT.…”

Plasma cholinesterase activities in dementias, depressions and schizophrenia

“…The decrease values in the SDAT group may possibly reflect the decreased cholinesterase activities found in the brain in this condition (Pope et al, 1964;Davies and Maloney, 1976;Bowen et al, 1977;Perry et al, 1978;Davies, 1979;Yates et al, 1983). Decreased cholinesterase values have been reported in the cerebrospinal fluid in Alzheimer's disease (Deutsch et al, 1983;Soininen et af., 1984) but previous studies on plasma cholinesterase have found higher values in SDAT than in controls (Smith et al, 1982) or in those with multi-infarct dementia (Perry et al, 1982). The methods of estimation in the previous studies were different, and it is interesting to note that Perry et al (1982) found that their group with moderate dementia had a lower mean ACE value than those with only mild dementia.…”

Cholinergic muscarinic binding by human lymphocytes: Changes with aging, antagonist treatment, and senile dementia of the Alzheimer type

“…Indeed, muscarinic receptors recently were demonstrated and characterized in murine lymphocytes {2, 14,191 and in peripheral circulating human blood lymphocytes 1343. As diminished function of central cholinergic systems has been implicated in the deterioration of mental faculties during aging 14, 9, 127 and as an etiological factor in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) [8, 10, 13,23, 25,27,29,32 J, a peripheral marker for central muscarinic cholinergic function would be very useful E27, 291. It was, therefore, of interest to determine whether any changes in muscarinic binding by peripheral lymphocytes occur during normal aging and in senile dementia.…”