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Cause Behind Alzheimer's Plaques Identified

by Rathi Manohar on September 02, 2010 at 10:09 PM Research News

A protein - beta-amyloid - builds deposits in the brain, causing nerve cells to get weak and die leading to Alzheimer's disease.

Cause Behind Alzheimer's Plaques Identified

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Drugs designed to eliminate plaques made of beta-amyloid have a fatal problem: they need to enter the brain and remove the plaques without attacking healthy brain cells. New research from the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Paul Greengard, however, suggests that treatments modeled on the blockbuster cancer drug Gleevec could be the solution. The findings are reported in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Nature.

Gleevec, it turns out, has the unique ability to bind to a protein that triggers the production of beta-amyloid plaques. The new research from Greengard's lab shows that this protein, called gamma-secretase activating protein (GSAP), dramatically and selectively increases the production of beta-amyloid peptide, which makes up the senile plaques found in the brains of most people with Alzheimer's. GSAP works through a mechanism involving its interactions with gamma-secretase, an enzyme that chops up the amyloid precursor protein, a large molecule produced naturally in the body and found in many different types of cells.

"Alzheimer's disease is a devastating disorder for which there are no satisfactory treatments," says Greengard, Vincent Astor Professor and director of the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research at Rockefeller. "Our findings reveal that gamma-secretase activating protein is a potential target for a new class of anti-amyloid therapies." Greengard won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research into how neurons communicate.

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Cause Behind Alzheimer's Plaques Identified

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