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Acetylcholinesterase is Not a Protease: Implications for Alzheimer’s Disease

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Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases

Part of the book series: Advances in Behavioral Biology ((ABBI,volume 44))

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Abstract

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) has been alleged for over a decade to possess a protease activity. The activity was first described in purified eel AChE from commercial suppliers and bovine serum AChE (Chubb et al., 1980; Chubb et al., 1983). Two protease activities appear to reside with the AChE, a trypsin-like endopeptidase and a carboxypeptidase (Small et al., 1987; Small, 1988). The protease activity is difficult to remove from the AChE indicating that it is either tightly bound or intrinsic to the enzyme (Small, 1989; Small, 1990). However, a recent report suggests that bovine serum AChE is reversibly associated with a protease activity (Michaelson and Small, 1993).

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Emmerling, M.R., Grassi, J., Carroll, R.T. (1995). Acetylcholinesterase is Not a Protease: Implications for Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Hanin, I., Yoshida, M., Fisher, A. (eds) Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. Advances in Behavioral Biology, vol 44. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9145-7_39

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9145-7_39

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9147-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9145-7

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