Role of Cofilin in Alzheimer's Disease

Qiang Wang; Wei Yuan; Xiaohang Yang; Yuan Wang; Yongfeng Li; Haifa Qiao

doi:10.3389/fcell.2020.584898

Role of Cofilin in Alzheimer's Disease

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2020 Nov 26:8:584898. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2020.584898. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Qiang Wang^{1

2}, Wei Yuan^{1

2}, Xiaohang Yang^{1

3}, Yuan Wang^{1

2}, Yongfeng Li^{1

2}, Haifa Qiao^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ College of Acupuncture and Massage, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xianyang, China.
² Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Medicine, Xianyang, China.
³ College of Medical Technology, Shaanxi University of Chinese Medicine, Xi'an, China.
⁴ Xianyang Key Laboratory of Neurobiology and Acupuncture, Xi'an, China.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative neurological disease and has an inconspicuous onset and progressive development. Clinically, it is characterized by severe dementia manifestations, including memory impairment, aphasia, apraxia, loss of recognition, impairment of visual-spatial skills, executive dysfunction, and changes in personality and behavior. Its etiology is unknown to date. However, several cellular biological signatures of AD have been identified such as synaptic dysfunction, β-amyloid plaques, hyperphosphorylated tau, cofilin-actin rods, and Hirano bodies which are related to the actin cytoskeleton. Cofilin is one of the most affluent and common actin-binding proteins and plays a role in cell motility, migration, shape, and metabolism. They also play an important role in severing actin filament, nucleating, depolymerizing, and bundling activities. In this review, we summarize the structure of cofilins and their functional and regulating roles, focusing on the synaptic dysfunction, β-amyloid plaques, hyperphosphorylated tau, cofilin-actin rods, and Hirano bodies of AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Aβ; function; regulation of cofilin; structure.

Publication types

Review