Recent efforts have revealed that numerous protein-coding messenger RNAs have natural antisense transcript partners, most of which seem to be noncoding RNAs. Here we identify a conserved noncoding antisense transcript for beta-secretase-1 (BACE1), a crucial enzyme in Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology. The BACE1-antisense transcript (BACE1-AS) regulates BACE1 mRNA and subsequently BACE1 protein expression in vitro and in vivo. Upon exposure to various cell stressors including amyloid-beta 1-42 (Abeta 1-42), expression of BACE1-AS becomes elevated, increasing BACE1 mRNA stability and generating additional Abeta 1-42 through a post-transcriptional feed-forward mechanism. BACE1-AS concentrations were elevated in subjects with Alzheimer's disease and in amyloid precursor protein transgenic mice. These data show that BACE1 mRNA expression is under the control of a regulatory noncoding RNA that may drive Alzheimer's disease-associated pathophysiology. In summary, we report that a long noncoding RNA is directly implicated in the increased abundance of Abeta 1-42 in Alzheimer's disease.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 42. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 October 2025.
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Altmetric has tracked 33,503,639 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,358 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 110.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 71% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 46 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
