Alzheimer's disease: another piece of the puzzle

A protective pathway has been found that reduces the toxicity of beta-amyloid

LifeSciencesToday based on the materials of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry:
Protective pathway identified to counter toxicity associated with Alzheimer’s disease

In a new study led by Marco Prado, PhD, from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, published in The Journal of Neuroscience (Ostapchenko et al., The Prion Protein Ligand, Stress-Inducible Phosphoprotein 1, Regulates Amyloid-beta Oligomer Toxicity) the pathway used by the brain to protect against the toxic effects of beta-amyloid oligomers associated with Alzheimer's disease has been determined.

Dr. Prado and his colleagues from the Robarts Research Institute, Canada, and the A.S. Camargo Cancer Center, Brazil, have done a lot of work to determine the role of prion proteins and found that preventing their interaction with beta-amyloid is one of the main culprits the development of Alzheimer's disease, – it is possible to reduce the toxicity of the oligomers of the latter. The interaction of stress-induced phosphoprotein 1 (stress-inducible phosphoprotein 1, STI1) secreted by astrocytes with prion proteins prevents the binding of prions to beta-amyloid oligomers and protects neurons.

"Interestingly, when studying brain samples of people with Alzheimer's disease, we saw that STI1 levels in them were increased compared to control groups. We consider this increase to be a compensatory reaction that can protect against the harm caused by beta-amyloid. Therefore, we tested on mouse neurons what would happen if STI1 levels were raised or lowered," says Prado, professor of the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology and Anatomy and Cell Biology at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario. – With a decrease in the level of STI1, neurons became more sensitive to the effects of beta-amyloid, and with an increase in its level, a decrease in the toxicity of beta-amyloid was observed. Alzheimer's disease has to be imagined as one big puzzle. Every year scientists solve all new parts of it, and now we have established that the STI1 path is also such a part. The disease is very complex, but increasingly there are clues about how we can help the brain protect itself from toxins. We're starting to see the big picture. It may take years, but we intend to tie all the pieces of this puzzle together and find a way to slow down or cure Alzheimer's disease."

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.10.2013