Brain protein and alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex activity in Alzheimer's disease.

To determine whether the reduction in brain alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex activity in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with an abnormality in one of its three constituent enzyme subunits, we measured protein levels of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (El), dihydrolipoamide succinyltransferase (E2), and dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3), in postmortem brain of 29 patients with AD (mean age, 73 years; age range of onset, 50-78 years) and 29 control subjects. In the AD group protein levels of all three subunits were significantly reduced by 23 to 41% in the temporal cortex, whereas in the parietal cortex (El: -28%; E3: -32%) and hippocampus (E3: -33%) significant changes were limited to El and E3. alpha-Ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex activities were more markedly reduced (by 46-68%) and did not correlate with protein levels, suggesting that decreased enzyme activity cannot be primarily explained by loss of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex protein. We did not find two E2 immunoreactive forms in the brain of any patient, as has been reported in fibroblasts of patients with very-early-onset chromosome 14-linked AD. We conclude that brain protein and activity levels of alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex are reduced in patients with AD who have onset after 50 years and suggest that these changes, which are also observed in other human brain disorders, may represent a nonspecific consequence of different neurodegenerative processes. Nevertheless, reduced levels of this rate-limiting enzyme of the Krebs cycle could contribute to the brain neurodegenerative mechanisms of AD.