The Cellular Biology of Presenilin Proteins and a Novel Mechanism of Amyloid β-Peptide Generation

Presenilin (PS) proteins are involved in numerous cases of familial Alzheimer’s disease (reviewed by Tanzi et al. 1996) and are therefore key players in the pathogenesis of the disease. To understand the biology of the PS proteins we searched for a potential biological function and analyzed the biochemistry of the two homologous PS proteins. We also determined the subcellular localization of presenilis and took advantage of this knowledge to search for a cellular mechanism that is involved in Aβ42 generation. These three main topics will be reviewed in detail.