plaques

Healthy Mitochondria Could Prevent Alzheimer’s disease Progression

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Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have found rendering mitochondria resistant to damage can stop Alzheimer’s disease and other diseases caused by amyloid toxicity. Alzheimer’s disease leads to dementia and is becoming more and more of a burden on healthcare systems. The disease is believed to be caused by an accumulation of toxic plaques in the brain and an abnormal aggregation of a beta-amyloid inside neurons. Previous research has looked into treatment for Alzheimer’s disease by reducing the formation of amyloid plaques.  These results were not very promising and now researchers are looking for other treatment strategies such as considering Alzheimer’s disease as a metabolic disease. The researchers looked at mitochondria, which are energy-producing powerhouses of cells, and important in metabolism. The researchers found that by boosting mitochondria defenses against a particular form of protein stress a reduction … Read more

Inflammation Plays a Role in Alzheimer’s disease

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Researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the University of Bonn have shown that inflammatory mechanisms from the brain’s immune system drive the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The research provides new insights into the pathogenetic mechanisms that may hold the potential for preventing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms show up. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition that eventually leads to dementia. The disease is associated with the aggregation of small proteins called “Amyloid-beta” (Abeta), known as “plaques,” that accumulate in the brain and are believed to harm neurons. Prior studies have shown deposits of Abeta trigger inflammatory mechanisms by the brain’s immune system. Researchers believe that deposition and spreading of Abeta likely precede any clinical symptoms by decades. Even so researchers do not fully understand the processes responsible and thus believe by doing so that effective treatments to target Alzheimer’s … Read more