Lipid rafts participate in aberrant degradative autophagic-lysosomal pathway of amyloid-beta peptide in Alzheimer's disease

Amyloid-beta peptide is the main component of amyloid plaques,which are found in Alzheimer’s disease.The generation and deposition of amyloid-beta is one of the crucial factors for the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease.Lipid rafts are glycolipid-rich liquid domains of the plasma membrane,where certain types of protein tend to aggregate and intercalate.Lipid rafts are involved in the generation of amyloid-beta oligomers and the formation of amyloid-beta peptides.In this paper,we review the mechanism by which lipid rafts disturb the aberrant degradative autophagic-lysosomal pathway of amyloid-beta,which plays an important role in the pathological process of Alzheimer’s disease.Moreover,we describe this mechanism from the view of the Two-system Theory of fasciology and thus,suggest that lipid rafts may be a new target of Alzheimer’s disease treatment.