Скачать или смотреть The New Protein at the Core of Treating Azheimer’s Disease. C&E Matheson Scholar, Flynn Butler

sAPPa: The New Protein at the Core of Treating Azheimer’s Disease
Amyloid-beta plaques are at the heart of the destructive condition we all know as Alzheimer’s Disease. New research is focussed on how cells produce sAPPa, because we believe this alternative pathway prevents the formation of amyloid-beta.
In our lab, we are trying to understand the pathways by which cells produce amyloid beta, the protein which aggregates to cause disease in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s Disease.
All of our brain cells produce amyloid-beta – even young, healthy people in which plaques do not form. One of the important issues causing plaques to form in old age relates to increased production of amyloid-beta. Therefore, we are interested in ways to reduce amyloid-beta production.
We are particularly interested in the precursor to amyloid beta because we know that this precursor can be processed in a different way. This alternative pathway produces a different, more beneficial product – called soluble amyloid precursor protein alpha (sAPPa). We believe we can reduce the formation of amyloid-beta by pushing the pathway in this alternative direction. This could be critical to prevent formation of the destructive amyloid-beta plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease.