HIGH-LEVELS OF HIPPOCAMPAL CHOLINERGIC NEUROSTIMULATING PEPTIDE (HCNP) IN THE CSF OF SOME PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Hippocampal cholinergic neurostimulating peptide (HCNP), originally pu rified from the hippocampus of young rats, enhances the cholinergic de velopment of rat medial septal nuclei in vitro. This report concerns t he determination of the HCNP content of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 173 clinically, and of 22 clinico-pathologically defined patients. A radioimmunoassay was used throughout. The HCNP level was relatively uniform among the clinically defined patients; for almost all non-Alzh eimer's patients, the level fell within the range delimited by +/-2 SD of the mean for all patients taken together, and none of them had a l evel above this range. By contrast, the early-onset Alzheimer's diseas e patients could be divided on the basis of their HCNP level into two groups, one with high levels (markedly above the mean +/-2 SD range), and the other with levels similar to those of the other patients. The analysis of the CSF samples obtained postmortem revealed that Group I Alzheimer-type dementia (ATD) patients with clinico-pathologically est ablished diagnoses had a strikingly higher level of HCNP than patients with either Group II ATD or cerebral vascular disease. These results suggest that HCNP is involved in certain pathophysiological alteration s associated with dementia, and that its determination may be useful i n patient evaluation. Eur J Neurol 5:561-569 (C) 1998 Lippincott Willi ams & Wilkins.