May 2, 2019 09:45 PM
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2019/05...556815303/
EXCERPT: Two brain proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease may act as self-propagating prions that cause development of the condition, researchers say. Researchers have found the two proteins spread like an infection, and report that elevated levels of amyloid beta and tau prion activity were found in the brains of younger patients who died from Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published Wednesday in "Science Transitional Medicine".
Particularly, they found patients who died of Alzheimer's at an average age of 40 had 32 times higher levels of tau prions in their brains than a 90-year-old person who also died of the disease. Prions are misshapen forms of a protein that can go on to infect and misshape similar proteins.
"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," Stanley Prusiner, a researcher at University of California at San Francisco and study senior author, said in a news release. "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..." (MORE)
EXCERPT: Two brain proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease may act as self-propagating prions that cause development of the condition, researchers say. Researchers have found the two proteins spread like an infection, and report that elevated levels of amyloid beta and tau prion activity were found in the brains of younger patients who died from Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published Wednesday in "Science Transitional Medicine".
Particularly, they found patients who died of Alzheimer's at an average age of 40 had 32 times higher levels of tau prions in their brains than a 90-year-old person who also died of the disease. Prions are misshapen forms of a protein that can go on to infect and misshape similar proteins.
"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," Stanley Prusiner, a researcher at University of California at San Francisco and study senior author, said in a news release. "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..." (MORE)