Newswise — New Brunswick, N.J. (Sept. 13, 2021) – Rutgers researchers have discovered some of the first molecular insights into how toxic proteins are regulated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cells naturally grow old and die, but proper regulation of cellular proteins is crucial to maintaining a healthy brain as we age. In neurodegenerative diseases, protein aggregates – or clumped fragments of misfolded proteins — spread to neighboring cells, but how that toxic material is transferred remains poorly understood.
The Rutgers researchers studied roundworms whose stressed nerve cells can extrude neurotoxic proteins in large packets called exophers and how specific stresses affect this extrusion. They found that specific cellular signals are needed to form…
