Researchers at the University are currently playing a key role in the discovery of the causes of Alzheimer's disease and have come one step closer to better understanding the disease.
"We are trying to understand the process that kills the cells in Alzheimer's," Biology Prof. George Bloom said. "We think we have found a missing link."
Bloom compared the structures of the brain to the workings of a car.
"A good analogy might be to an automobile," he said. "Anti-lock break, disc break, airbags ... there is a lot of stuff that helps prevent car accidents ... what we are doing with our research is focusing on the breaks to protect your car."
According to Bloom, most researchers consider the presence of plaques and tangles, two types of abnormal structures that appear in brains afflicted with Alzheimer's, to be fatal, noting, however, that this concept has recently been called into question.
"That idea has come under an increasing amount of skepticism," Bloom said. "[Plaques and tangles] are intimately involved in causing cell death, the question is how."
Bloom and his colleague, Biology Research Assistant Prof. Michelle King, discovered that two of "the building blocks of plaques and tangles, proteins beta-amyloid and tau, work together to cause intercellular structures to fall apart," King said.
According to King, it is the proteins that produce these plaques and tangles that result in the problems associated with Alzheimer's.
"The structures lose their microtubules, the 'skeleton' of the cell, which leads to death," King said. "Without a long, stable microtubule you couldn't walk, stand or even have a thought."
Both researchers are hopeful that their findings, published in Nov. of last year, will lead to a drug or therapeutic intervention in the near future.
"I think there is very good hope that there will be compounds available to treat Alzheimer's sooner," Bloom said.
King agreed that this finding shows great potential.
"This is the most exciting result I've come across in 10 years of research in Alzheimer's," King added.
The next step for the researchers is to continue to identify the steps that lead to the final development of Alzheimer's.
"If we can figure out how to make [Alzheimer's occur], we could figure out how to stop it," Bloom said.
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