Alzheimer's Disease-Blocking Molecule Identified

Researchers have identified a molecule that can prohibit the progress of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) during a key stage of manifestation, according to a new study.

“A great deal of work in this field has gone into understanding which microscopic processes are important in the development of Alzheimer’s disease; now we are now starting to reap the rewards of this hard work,” said Samuel Cohen, lead author of the study and a research fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge.^{1
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“Our study shows, for the first time, one of these critical processes being specifically inhibited, and reveals that by doing so we can prevent the toxic effects of protein aggregation that are associated with this terrible condition,” he said. ¹

For the study, researchers evaluated these molecular processes including secondary nucleation, a chain reaction creates more toxic oligomers and amyloid fibrils which generate the toxic impact of AD. ¹

The results showed that the molecule Brichos thwarts secondary nucleation since it functions as a helper to proteins in order to avoid aggregation and misfolding. ²

Instead of misfolding, when it encounters an amyloid fibril, it attaches to the surface of the catalytic site. ²

This research, they noted, may lead to the identification of other molecules that could have similar Alzheimer’s blocking effects.

The complete study is published in the February issue of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

References:

1. University of Cambridge. Molecular inhibitor breaks cycle that leads to Alzheimer’s. February 30, 2015. www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/molecular-inhibitor-breaks-cycle-that-leads-to-alzheimers. Accessed February 16, 2015.

2. Cohen SA, Arosio P, Presto J, et al. A molecular chaperone breaks the catalytic cycle that generates toxic Aβ oligomers. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2015 February [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1038/nsmb.2971.