Scientists have identified the exact point at which healthy brain proteins go into disarray commonly associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, hope that the new laboratory technology behind this discovery can be used to directly study the unprecedented early stages of several neurodegenerative diseases.
According to the study, proteins called “tau” are present in abundance in human immunity, and by linking them with microtubules, the brain works well, but its deviation sometimes from that is a sign of cases of Alzheimer’s disease.
In this complex condition, known as a neurofibrillary tangle, tau proteins are suspected of choking neurons from the inside out, interfering with their functions and ultimately causing them to die.
The researchers were able to monitor the condition in the laboratory for the first time, which helps in understanding the role of the protein in brain degeneration, and may also help in testing possible treatments for the disease.
During the study, which was published in the journal biological chemistryThe researchers were able to watch the tau proteins switch from a healthy state to a diseased state as this happened.
“This method provides scientists with a new way to simultaneously stimulate and monitor dynamic changes in a protein as it goes from good to bad,” explains biochemist Daniel Morse.
The transition from healthy to diseased tau could be “gradual, rather than the result of a single switch,” the researchers write.
Despite medical advances, there is no treatment that can cure Alzheimer’s disease or stop the changes it causes in the brain.
