Latest Biochemistry of Alzheimer's disease Stories
Alzheimer's disease is widely believed to be caused by the gradual accumulation in the brain of amyloid-beta peptide which is toxic to nerve cells. Amyloid beta peptide is formed from a protein known as APP, which is found in three forms. Most research into APP "“ a key area of study for the disease "“ does not distinguish between the different forms of the protein.The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, show that amyloid beta peptide is actually created mainly by...
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have offered new information about the events that underlie the "spread" of Alzheimer's disease (AD) throughout the brain. The research follows disease progression from a vulnerable brain region that is affected early in the disease to interconnected brain regions that are affected in later stages.The findings may contribute to design of therapeutic interventions, as targeting the brain region...
Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have offered new information about the events that underlie the "spread" of Alzheimer's disease throughout the brain. The research, published in the November 4th issue of the journal Neuron, follows disease progression from a vulnerable brain region that is affected early in the disease to interconnected brain regions that are affected in later stages. The findings may contribute to design of therapeutic interventions, as...
Pathological protein deposits linked to Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy can be triggered not only by the administration of pathogenic misfolded protein fragments directly into the brain but also by peripheral administration outside the brain. This is shown in a new study done by researchers at the Hertie Institute of Clinical Brain Research (HIH, University Hospital Tübingen, University of Tübingen) and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), to be...
Finding a drug that can cross the blood-brain barrier is the bane of drug development for Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders of the brain. A new Penn study, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, has found and tested in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease a class of drug that is able to enter the brain, where it stabilizes degenerating neurons and improves memory and learning.In the normal brain, the protein tau plays an important role in stabilizing...
Scientists say results fill in gaps of story, lay foundation for therapies to prevent or stall plaquesMassachusetts General Hospital researchers say they have determined how iron contributes to the production of brain-destroying plaques found in Alzheimer's patients.The team, whose study results appear in this week's Journal of Biological Chemistry, report that there is a very close link between elevated levels of iron in the brain and the enhanced production of the amyloid precursor protein,...
As researchers try to understand how a particular protein sets the stage for the toxic plaques that wreak havoc on the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, they face a dilemma.This protein, called the amyloid precursor protein, not only begins the damaging process that results in Alzheimer's, it also has a critical biological function in brain development and in the synapse (the junction between nerve cells or nerve and muscle cells). To figure out how this protein causes Alzheimer's,...
Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a new therapeutic target that can potentially lead to a new way to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The target called neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is a protein that when activated, can cause a chain of reactions in the cell leading to neuronal death and memory loss.Results from the study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer's Association will be published in the September 22...
By Jim Dryden, Washington University in St. LouisAn international team of Alzheimer's disease experts, led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has uncovered a gene variation that appears to predict the rate at which Alzheimer's disease will progress.The investigators report their findings online in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Genetics.Whereas previous studies have focused on factors that influence the risk for Alzheimer's, the new research points to a...
In people with Alzheimer's, the brain becomes riddled with clumps of protein, forming what are known as amyloid plaques. Now, a report appearing in the September 17th print issue of Cell appears to have found a function for the amyloid precursor protein (APP for short) that yields the prime ingredient in those plaques.It turns out that APP is an iron oxidase whose job it is to convert iron from an unsafe form to a safe one for transport or storage. When APP fails to function properly, as it...
