Scientists have discovered a protein that causes Alzheimer's disease
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The enzyme, which is involved in the regulation of cell division and is the cause of some cancers, can cause the death of neurons in the brain.
Many years of research by researchers from the Feinstein Institute of Medical Research (USA), specializing in Alzheimer's disease, led them to the protein c-Abl, which scientists believe is one of the main causes of this severe neurodegenerative disease.
C-Abl refers to the class of enzymes of tyrosine kinases, that is, it sews the rest of phosphoric acid to the amino acid residues of tyrosine polypeptide chains of other proteins. The operation increases or lowers the activity of the modified protein. C-Abl is involved in the processes of cell differentiation, cell division and cell adhesion in the formation of cells. Participation in the processes of cell division makes c-Abl one of the potential "provocateurs" of cancer. It was previously known that an increase in the level of this enzyme in B-lymphocytes accompanies chronic myeloid leukemia, and if we suppress its activity, it will slow down the division of cancer cells.
Researchers from the Feinstein Institute were looking for enzymes that phosphorylate tau protein, which in Alzheimer's disease forms characteristic neurofibrillary tangles in brain neurons. The article, announced on the website of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, reports that it was the c-Abl kinase that accompanied Alzheimer's plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. In experiments, this enzyme started the cell cycle, pushed the neurons to begin dividing and thereby caused their death. Researchers increased c-Abl activity in the hippocampus and neocortex in mice - and soon found typical "holes" in the brain tissues that developed most rapidly in the hippocampus; The death of neurons was accompanied by intense inflammation.
The laboratory model on mice, which researchers developed for their experiments, can serve as a convenient test pad for creating anti-alzheimer remedies. Drugs that inhibited c-Abl activity in blood cancer for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease are not suitable: they can not overcome the blood-brain barrier that exists between the circulatory system and the nervous system.
Now scientists are working to refine the mechanism of cell death caused by this enzyme, for the purpose of developing a purposeful way of affecting neurons containing a protein that has escaped control.
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