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posted by martyb on Friday November 11 2016, @05:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the always-carry-spare-batteries dept.

"Age-related neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's, progress over a long period of time before they become clinically apparent. The earliest physiological and molecular events are largely unknown," said Mastroeni. "Findings from our laboratory have uncovered early expression changes in nuclear-encoded, but not mitochondrial-encoded mRNAs occurring in one's early 30s, giving us a glimpse into what we suspect are some of the earliest cellular changes in the progression of Alzheimer's disease."

Results of the new study show that specific classes of genes associated with mitochondrial cell respiration display reduced expression levels in patients with Alzheimer's disease, compared with normal patients.

The study also examines gene expression in subjects whose brains show an intermediate level of illness known as mild cognitive impairment. Here, the opposite effect is observed, with relevant genes exhibiting increased levels of expression. The authors suggest this observation may point to some kind of compensatory mechanism in the brain attempting to stave off the disease in its earlier stages.

Further, the study proposes that restoring a specific set of damaged genes linked to mitochondrial function and located in the nuclear DNA of cells may offer a promising strategy for halting the disease's advance.

Journal: Nuclear but not mitochondrial-encoded OXPHOS genes are altered in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's and Dementia, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2016.09.003

Simply put, the mitochondria run out of gas, and Alzheimer's follows.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @03:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 12 2016, @03:47PM (#426061)

    so, it's caused by incorrect diet as some nutritionists have suggested. get off the pig slop and start eating a high fat diet with veggies instead (with exercise) and all these high tech "genetic" illnesses will disappear. so will all the doctor's drug dealing profits so don't expect a lot of press and education for the young.