HE Xun, YU Yutian

(Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China)

Abstract:  Alzheimer's  disease  (AD)  is  the  most  common  type  of  dementia,  which  is  a neurodegenerative disease associated with a variety of genes. The pathogenesis of AD is currently thought to be related to heredity, apoptosis, free radical damage and other factors. The pathological changes of AD mainly involve the cholinergic nerve pathways of the anterior base of the cerebral cortex  and  the  hippocampus. These  pathways  are  well  known  for  being  involved  in  attention, learning, memory and other cognitive processes. Inhibition of expression of repressor element-1-silencing transcription factor (REST) is a common feature of normal aging in the human cerebral cortex and hippocampus neurons. However, in the brain of mild cognitive impairment and AD, REST  protein  was  not  found.  Chromatin  immunoprecipitation  and  gene  expression  analysis showed that REST protein could serve as a nerve modulator in inhibiting gene expression that promotes cell death and causes AD. In addition, REST may increase the expression of FOXO transcription factors that mediate oxidative stress and the expression of antioxidant enzymes CAT 

and  SOD1  by  indirect  mechanisms  such  as  inhibition  of  microRNAs. Take  into  account  these findings, we believe that REST protein may play a key role in the pathogenesis of AD. 

Key words: REST protein, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Neuron