Healthy Mitochondria Could Prevent Alzheimer’s disease Progression

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