Relationship between multifunctional protein "clusterin" and Alzheimer′s disease

Alzheimer′s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that starts slowly and progressively leads to cognitive impairment. Clusterin, as an apolipoprotein, is usually widely expressed in mammalian brain tissue. In previous studies, below theories have been demonstrated: clusterin influences the aggregation, clearance and neurotoxicity of β-amyloid; compared to healthy people, AD patients show higher clusterin level in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid; the polymorphisms of clusterin gene encoding clusterin can enhance the incidence risk of AD. In addition, regulating the expression of clusterin in AD animals model has certain therapeutic effect on AD. Further investigating intrinsic relationship between clusterin and AD will help clarify the pathogenesis and establish a new therapeutic target of AD thus contributing to the prevention of Alzheimer′s disease. Key words: Clusterin; Alzheimer disease; Apolipoproteins J; β-Amyloid