CCK receptors and human neurological disease

Cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor binding was measured in postmortem brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's dementia, Huntington's chorea, and neurologically healthy matched controls. CCK binding was significantly reduced in the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex of Huntington's patients, but was normal in the temporal and cingulate cortex of patients with Alzheimer's disease. These findings indicate that CCK receptor loss is unique to specific neurodegenerative disease(s), and that CCK may be involved in the symptoms of Huntington's disease but is not implicated in the neuropathology of Alzheimer's dementia.