SwastiChemEx: Chain of events that leads to Alzheimer’s disease

Thursday, 16 October 2014

Chain of events that leads to Alzheimer’s disease

Scientists have for the first time replicated the full course of events underlying the development of Alzheimer's disease inside a lab. A novel 3D culture system replicates the course of Alzheimer's, which doctors feel could significantly reduce time and cost of drug development.

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston showed that the deposition of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain is the first step in a cascade leading to the devastating neurodegenerative disease. They also identified the essential role in that process of an enzyme, inhibition of which could be a therapeutic target.

The MGH team used a gel-based, 3D culture system to grow human neural stem cells that carried variants in two genes — the amyloid precursor protein and presenilin 1 — known to underlie early-onset Familial Alzheimer's Disease (FAD). Both the genes were co-discovered in lead researcher Rudolph E Tanzi's laboratory.

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