Cholinesterases in Human Degenerative Diseases

Abstract

Although central cholinergic systems have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of neurodegenerative disorders, the best characterized of these disorders is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In AD there is a degeneration of projections from the cholinergic basal forebrain to the neocortex and hippocampus resulting in a loss of cell bodies in the basal forebrain and reduced cortical choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzyme activities. A similar degeneration of cholinergic basal forebrain neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NbM) has also been reported in a number of other neurodegenerative disorders including Parkinson’s disease (PD), Downs syndrome (DS) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Rogers et al, 1985). In progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) there is also a loss of NbM neurons along with a degeneration in cholinergic striatal and pedunculopontine neurons (Ruberg et al, 1985; Hirsch et al, 1987).