Title:Amylin Pharmacology in Alzheimer’s Disease Pathogenesis and Treatment
Volume: 20
Issue: 10
Author(s): Rachel R. Corrigan, Helen Piontkivska and Gemma Casadesus*
Affiliation:
- Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Keywords:
Alzheimer’s disease, amylin, therapy, diabetes, metabolism, amyloid, neuroprotection.
Abstract: The metabolic peptide hormone amylin, in concert with other metabolic peptides like insulin
and leptin, has an important role in metabolic homeostasis and has been intimately linked to
Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Interestingly, this pancreatic amyloid peptide is known to self-aggregate
much like amyloid-beta and has been reported to be a source of pathogenesis in both Type II diabetes
mellitus (T2DM) and Alzheimer’s disease. The traditional “gain of toxic function” properties assigned
to amyloid proteins are, however, contrasted by several reports highlighting neuroprotective
effects of amylin and a recombinant analog, pramlintide, in the context of these two diseases. This
suggests that pharmacological therapies aimed at modulating the amylin receptor may be therapeutically
beneficial for AD development, as they already are for T2DMM. However, the nature of amylin
receptor signaling is highly complex and not well studied in the context of CNS function. Therefore,
to begin to address this pharmacological paradox in amylin research, the goal of this review is
to summarize the current research on amylin signaling and CNS functions and critically address the
paradoxical nature of this hormone's signaling in the context of AD pathogenesis.