Recent Progress of Mitochondrial Dysfunction Induced by β-Amyloid Protein*

Abstract

Alzheimer′ s disease (AD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders. However, the mechanisms of the disease are still unclear. Increasing evidences demonstrated that mitochondrial dysfunction and structural abnormalities induced by Aβ play important roles in this disease. β-Amyloid (Aβ) induced mitochondrial damage can be attributed to reduced activities of several key enzymes of mitochondrial energy metabolism, impaired balance of mitochondrial fission and fusion as well as mitochondrial membrane permeability transition pore (mPTP) formation. The recent progress in the mechanisms of Aβ induced mitochondrial damage was summarized.