In Alzheimer’s disease, a protein (peptide) forms clumps in the brain and causes sufferers to lose their memory. In a recently published article, a research group at Uppsala University described a new treatment method that increases the body’s own degradation of the building blocks that lead to these protein clumps.
In Alzheimer’s disease, the peptide amyloid-beta begins to form clumps in the brain. This process is called aggregation and the clumps so created are called aggregates. The treatment methods for Alzheimer’s disease that are currently in clinical trials are attempts to bind to these disease-causing aggregates. But they are unable to bind to the smallest aggregates, which many now believe are the most toxic to neurons.
The treatment method developed in the new Uppsala research study using mice degrades the building blocks from which these aggregates form before they have a…
