Insights into Alzheimer’s Disease: The Levels of Signaling Proteins in Brain of Control Subjects Versus Brain from Subjects with Mild Cognitive Impairment

The purpose of this study was to measure the expression levels of key signaling proteins in brain tissue from subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to control subjects. MCI is considered to be the beginning phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-κβ), phospho Bad (pBad), and ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) are four of the proteins that were investigated. Trends of either decreases or increases in protein expression levels in MCI vs. control brain were investigated. Western blot analysis was used in order to identify these trends. These signaling protein levels are reportedly up-regulated or down-regulated in the AD brain; consequently, investigating protein expression levels in MCI brain may provide insight into how these proteins contribute to the transition from MCI to AD