An enzyme associated with Alzheimer's Disease is found in higher levels and is more active in key areas of the brain in people with the disease, according to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The researchers, reporting in the journal Archives of Neurology, said they found elevated levels of beta-site APP-cleaving enzyme (BACE) in parts of the brain where amyloid-beta protein plaques most often occur in Alzheimer patients.

In a comparison of brain tissue of people with Alzheimer's to people without the disease, the researchers reported they found BACE activity and protein "significantly increased" in the temporal neocortex and frontal neocortex of the brains of those with Alzheimer's.

Importantly, BACE activity was not found to be increased in the cerebellar cortex, a region of the brain not significantly affected by the changes that take place after the onset of Alzheimer's.

"Our key finding is that beta-secretase activity, the efficiency of how the enzyme works, is increased in Alzheimer's diseased brains," said Dr. Michael Irizarry.

Dr. Roger N. Rosenberg of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, in an accompanying editorial, said "these observations provide a direct and compelling reason to develop therapies directed at inhibiting beta-secretase activities."

Other sources: Archives of Neurology