In Alzheimer’s disease, the peptide amyloid-beta begins to form clumps in the brain.
In Alzheimer’s disease, the peptide amyloid-beta begins to form clumps in the brain. This process is called aggregation and the clumps so created are called aggregates. The treatment methods for Alzheimer’s disease that are currently in clinical trials are attempts to bind to these disease-causing aggregates. But they are unable to bind to the smallest aggregates, which many now believe are the most toxic to neurons.
The treatment method developed in the new Uppsala research study using mice degrades the building blocks from which these aggregates form before they have a chance to aggregate. This treatment method therefore reduces the formation of all types of aggregates.
It has long been known that the peptide somatostatin, which was used by the researchers in the Uppsala group, can activate the body’s own degradation of amyloid-beta, which is the peptide that forms the aggregates. However, it has not been possible to use somatostatin as a drug in the past because it has a very short half-life in the blood of only a few minutes, and does not cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain where the aggregates are formed.
Read more at: Uppsala University
In Alzheimer's disease, a protein (peptide) forms clumps in the brain and causes sufferers to lose their memory. In a recently published article, a research group at Uppsala University described a new treatment method that increases the body's own degradation of the building blocks that lead to these protein clumps. Greta Hultqvist, assistant professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, led the research study. (Photo Credit: Uppsala University)
