Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have determined the structure of protein “fibrils” linked to Lou Gehrig’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders — findings that provide clues to how toxic proteins clump and spread between nerve cells in the brain.
Their results may also lead to developing drugs to treat diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
“These devastating brain disorders that affect tens of thousands of Americans?are on the rise worldwide, and there are no effective treatments to stop their progression,” said Witold Surewicz, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the School of Medicine and the study’s senior author.
The study was published March 12 in the online journal Nature Communications. Qiuye Li, a graduate student in the department, was lead author; Case…
