A protein that wreaks havoc in the nerves and heart when it clumps together can prevent the formation of toxic protein clumps associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a new study led by a UT Southwestern researcher shows. The findings, published recently in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could lead to new treatments for this brain-ravaging condition, which currently has no truly effective therapies and no cure.
Researchers have long known that sticky plaques of a protein known as amyloid beta are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and are toxic to brain cells. As early as the mid-1990s, other proteins were discovered in these plaques as well.
One of these, a protein known as transthyretin (TTR), seemed to play a protective role, explains Lorena Saelices, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics and in the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UTSW, a center that is part…
