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Brain Cells Give New Clues to Alzheimer’s

Posted by Jim Hanekamp | Posted in Aging, Alzheimer's, Brain, Dementia, Memory | Posted on 09-07-2009

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By uncovering a mechanism that causes damage to brain synapses during Alzheimer’s disease, researchers might have found a key to reducing or preventing nerve degeneration for these patients.

According to a report in the April 3 issue of Science, researchers at the U.S.-based Burnham Institute for Medical Research have shown that beta-amyloid protein “multimers” create excessive nitric oxide. This free radical then reacts with the protein Drp1, causing the fragmentation of mitochondria — the cell’s energy storehouses — in the brain, a violent process that causes the neurodegeneration linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Finish reading this article at: Brain Cells Give New Clues

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