Nerve growth factor potentiates the neurotoxicity of beta amyloid.

The role of growth factors in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease is unknown. The beta-amyloid protein accumulates abnormally in the brain in Alzheimer disease and is neurotoxic to differentiated hippocampal neurons in culture. Nerve growth factor (NGF) increased the neurotoxic potency of a beta-amyloid polypeptide by a factor of approximately 100,000, which resulted in a reduction of the beta-amyloid neurotoxic EC50 from 0.1 microM to 1 pM. This potentiating effect of NGF was reversed by a monoclonal antibody against NGF and was not observed for a variety of other neurotrophic growth factors. Exposure of hippocampal neurons to very low concentrations of beta amyloid alone resulted in a marked induction of immunoreactive NGF receptors. Addition of NGF with beta amyloid resulted in the appearance of neurodegenerative changes in NGF receptor-positive neurons. The early and profound degeneration of hippocampal and basal forebrain cholinergic neurons that occurs in Alzheimer disease may result from a neurotoxic interaction of beta amyloid with NGF.