Activating autophagy to prevent Alzheimer's disease
( a major challenge )
Please Help Support Alzheimer's Research Today!
Your Alzheimer's donation will help billions live without it.
Cells, which employ a process called autophagy to clean up and reuse protein debris leftover from biological processes, were the original recyclers. A team of scientists from Paul Greengard's Rockefeller University laboratory have linked a molecule that stimulates autophagy with the reduction of one of Alzheimer's disease's major hallmarks, amyloid peptide. Their finding suggests a mechanism that could be used to eliminate built-up proteins in diseases such as Alzheimer's, Down syndrome, Huntingdon's and Parkinson's.
The molecule, called SMER28, spurs autophagy, which in turn eliminates unwanted materials such as amyloid-beta, the protein aggregates that cause Alzheimer's plaques. Increasing autophagy, either through a drug or a natural process such as diet, could improve the outcome for people with neurodegenerative diseases, the researchers report in the FASEB Journal.
"Much effort has been carried out to prevent the formation of amyloid-beta without much success," says Greengard, who is Vincent Astor Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. "In order to develop better-suited therapies, alternative approaches are clearly needed. One approach would be the identification of potential therapeutic targets that enhance the removal of amyloid-beta, for example, by increasing autophagy." Read more: eurekalert.org
The benefits of the Acai berry diet
Losing weight often feels like an impossible challenge. We have evaluted numerous fad diets over the years. All too frequently their results are just shy of painfully disappointing. Read more: weeklyhealthusa.org
No comments:
Post a Comment