Dehydroepiandrosterone reduces expression and activity of BACE in NT2 neurons exposed to oxidative stress

Recently, we showed that oxidative stress activates the expression and activity of the P-site APPP-cleaving enzyme (BACE), an aspartyl protease responsible for the beta-secretase cleavage of APPP. The identification of compounds able to prevent the induction of this event is an important goal of therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is an adrenal steroid that improves a variety of functions in the central nervous system. Moreover, a series of evidence suggests that DHEA displays antioxidant properties in different experimental models. In the present paper we show that pretreatment with DHEA is able to rescue the increase of mRNA expression, protein levels, and activity of BACE, produced by oxidative stress in NT2 neurons. BACE, being the enzyme that initiates the production of Abeta, is a drug target for AD. Our results imply that DHEA administration may slow down the AD pathological process, lowering Abeta accumulation. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.