Alzheimer’s risk gene disrupts endocytosis, but another disease-linked gene could help

Alzheimer's risk gene disrupts endocytosis, but another disease-linked gene could help
APOE4 Astrocytes showed an increase in endocytosis after overexpression of PICALM. In the bottom row, astrocytes (labeled blue), have taken up more of a protein called transferrin (labeled white). Credit: Tsai Lab/MIT Picower Institute

In a new study, a team of scientists based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research reveals evidence showing that the most prominent Alzheimer’s disease risk gene may disrupt a fundamental process in a key type of brain cell. Moreover, in a sign of how important it is to delve into the complex ways that genes intersect in disease, they found that increasing the expression of another Alzheimer’s-associated gene in those cells could help alleviate the problem.

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