Newswise — LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 2, 2022) – A team of researchers from the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) is working to identify new proteins that are destructive to the brain. They know that about 25% of individuals, and 50% of individuals with Alzheimer disease, have the genetic mutation APOE ε4 allele — a known risk factor for the disease.
Through a recent study, researchers were surprised to find that even in the brains of patients without the disease-driving mutation, ApoE proteins were enhanced in dementia. Their findings appear in The American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier.
“Dementia is very complex, but you can simplify it: the disease is caused by ‘gloppy proteins’ in the brain,” said lead investigator Peter T. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of neuropathology at SBCoA and a professor in UK’s Department…
