REVIEW article
Front. Mol. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Disease Mechanisms
Volume 18 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2025.1660151
Bridging Prion Biology and Alzheimer's Disease: From Pathogenic Seeds to Precision Therapeutics
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
- 2Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital, Guiyang, China
- 3Dazhou Central Hospital, Dazhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the pathological aggregation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau proteins, which display self-templating propagation reminiscent of the prion protein (PrPSc). Despite these similarities, distinct structural heterogeneities and host interaction mechanisms offer unique avenues for disease-modifying therapies. This review comprehensively synthesizes recent advancements addressing: 1) the conformational commonalities and strain-specificities shared between Aβ/tau and PrPSc; 2) the spatiotemporal dissemination patterns of pathogenic seeds within neural networks; and 3) the development of biomarkers and therapeutic strategies rooted in prion theory. By integrating insights from prion biology with AD pathogenesis, we propose a comprehensive "conformation-propagation-microenvironment" framework for precision intervention, thereby offering a novel paradigm to surmount current therapeutic limitations.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, prion, amyloid-beta, tau protein, precision medicine
Received: 07 Jul 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Feng, Luofeng, Hu, Chen, Zhang and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hua Huang, 395394881@qq.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.