Unraveling Alzheimer’s: New study documents how brain cells go bad
Led by Todd Cohen, PhD, assistant professor of neurology, UNC scientists used human cell cultures to show how amyloid beta can trigger a dramatic inflammatory response in immune cells and how that interaction damages neurons. Then they showed how that kind of neuron damage leads to the formation of bead-like structures filled with abnormal tau protein . Similar bead-like structures are known to form in the brain cells of people with Alzheimer's disease. The UNC researchers also identified two proteins -- MMP-9 and HDAC6 -- that help promote this harmful, amyloid-to-inflammation-to-tau cascade. These proteins and others associated with them could become drug targets to treat or prevent Alzheimer's. "It's exciting that we were able to observe tau -- the major Alzheimer's protein -- inside these beaded structures," said Cohen, who is also a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center. "We think that preventing these structures from forming would leave people...