RESUMO
The main amyloid-ß peptide (Aß) variants detected in the human brain are Aß1-40 and Aß1-42; however, a significant proportion of Aß in Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain also consists of N-terminal truncated/modified species. AßN3(pE), Aß peptide bearing amino-terminal pyroglutamate at position 3, has been demonstrated to be a major N-truncated/modified constituent of intracellular, extracellular, and vascular Aß deposits in AD and Down syndrome brain tissue. It has been previously demonstrated that rabbits fed a diet enriched in cholesterol and given water containing trace copper levels developed AD-like pathology including intraneuronal and extracellular Aß accumulation, tau hyperphosphorylation, vascular inflammation, astrocytosis, microgliosis, reduced levels of acetylcholine, as well as learning deficits and thus, may be used as a non-transgenic animal model of sporadic AD. In the present study, we have demonstrated for the first time the presence of AßN3(pE) in blood vessels in cholesterol-enriched diet-fed rabbit brain. In addition, we detected AßN3(pE) immunoreactivity in all postmortem AD brain samples studied. We believe that our results are potentially important for evaluation of novel therapeutic molecules/strategies targeting Aß peptides in a suitable non-transgenic animal model.