Recent progress in the study of intracellular toxicity of amyloid β peptide in Alzheimer's disease

Amyloid β (Aβ) deposition is one of the major pathological markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Extracellular Aβ toxicity has been studied for a long time in AD research field. However, controversial data show that extracellular Aβ load does not correlate with the dementia levels of AD patients and extracellular Aβ only induces significant cell death at non-physiological high concentrations. With the evolvement of Aβ hypothesis, considerable attention has been devoted to the study of intracellular Aβ toxicity recently. Intracellular Aβ induces dramatic cell loss in AD transgenic models and in human primary neurons (at pM concentrations) through p53, Bax and caspase-6 pathways. Here, we review the generation, toxicity and possible pathways of intracellular Aβ toxicity, and discuss the implication and current knowledge of intracellular Aβ in neuronal cell loss in neurodegenerative diseases.