Laying siege to beta-amyloid, the key protein in Alzheimerʼs disease
Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Barcelona (UB), observe that aggregates of 20 to 100 units of beta-amyloid have a structure that is the most harmful to neurons. This is the first time that a method allows scientists to monitor aggregation while simultaneously detect a structural pattern responsible for the toxicity of beta-amyloid aggregation. Researchers state that these studies are a step towards finding a therapeutic target for Alzheimerʼs disease which, to date, has no treatment.
Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Barcelona (UB), observe that aggregates of 20 to 100 units of beta-amyloid have a structure that is the most harmful to neurons. This is the first time that a method allows scientists to monitor aggregation while simultaneously detect a structural pattern responsible for the toxicity of beta-amyloid aggregation. Researchers state that these studies are a step towards finding a therapeutic target for Alzheimerʼs disease which, to date, has no treatment.
The peptide beta-amyloid is strongly associated with Alzheimerʼs disease. However, researchers are still looking for unequivocal proof that this peptide is the causal agent of the onset and development of the disease. The main obstacle impeding such confirmation is that beta-amyloid is not harmful when found in isolation but only when it aggregates, that is when it self-assembles to form the so-called amyloid fibrils. Natalia Carulla, scientist at IRB Barcelona, is the principal investigator of the study which has been recently published in the scientific journal ACS Chemical Biology. The study has been developed together with the scientific team led by Professor Eduardo Soriano, from the Department of Cell Biology of the Faculty of Biology at UB. They prepared neuronal cultures from miceʼs hippocampus, the brain region in which neuronal lost is first observed in Alzheimerʼs disease.