Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 03 2019, @05:25PM   Printer-friendly

Two proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions — misshapen proteins that spread through tissue like an infection by forcing normal proteins to adopt the same misfolded shape — according to new UC San Francisco research. 

Using novel laboratory tests, the researchers were able to detect and measure specific, self-propagating prion forms of the proteins amyloid beta (Aß) and tau in postmortem brain tissue of 75 Alzheimer’s patients. In a striking finding, higher levels of these prions in human brain samples were strongly associated with early-onset forms of the disease and younger age at death. 

Alzheimer’s disease is currently defined based on the presence of toxic protein aggregations in the brain known as amyloid plaques and tau tangles, accompanied by cognitive decline and dementia. But attempts to treat the disease by clearing out these inert proteins have been unsuccessful. The new evidence that active Aß and tau prions could be driving the disease – published May 1, 2019 in Science Translational Medicine — could lead researchers to explore new therapies that focus on prions directly. 

“I believe this shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that amyloid beta and tau are both prions, and that Alzheimer’s disease is a double-prion disorder in which these two rogue proteins together destroy the brain,” said Stanley Prusiner, MD, the study’s senior author and director of the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, part of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. “The fact that prion levels also appear linked to patient longevity should change how we think about the way forward for developing treatments for the disease. We need a sea change in Alzheimer’s disease research, and that is what this paper does. This paper might catalyze a major change in AD research.” 


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:07PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:07PM (#838489)

    They haven't identified how the Moslems got these prions into our food supply.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   -1  
       Troll=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Troll' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   -1  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:12PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @06:12PM (#838494)

    They use oil money.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @07:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @07:38PM (#838530)

      Ah, the weather war, I knew it!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @10:34PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @10:34PM (#838611)

    Probably bacon... The one thing they can be sure no Muslim will consume.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 04 2019, @03:02AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday May 04 2019, @03:02AM (#838685) Homepage

      From the summary:

      prius' — misshapen automobiles that spread through highways like an infection by forcing normal drivers to adapt to the shit driving shape — driven mostly by UC San Francisco research.