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Proteins Behind Mad Cow Disease may Protect Against Alzheimer's
In laboratory tests, the researchers observed that high levels of the prions in the brain prevented the accumulation of beta amyloid, the building blocks of Alzheimer's "plaques".
Study leader Professor Nigel Hooper says that the findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are significant as they may lead to the development of new treatments for the disease.
In the human version of mad cow disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the infectious prions corrupt the normal version of the prion protein present in brain cells, causing them to change their shape which in turn results in brain damage and death.
Given that Alzheimer's and variant CJD are similar, the researchers looked for a link between the two diseases.
They found that the build-up of beta-amyloid protein was reduced when the levels of prions were high in the brain. Whereas, the formation of plaques went back up again when the level of the prions was low or absent.
The findings, which have also been confirmed by experiments on mice genetically engineered to lack the prion proteins, suggest that the prions may have a preventive effect on the development of Alzheimer's.
The researchers are now planning to study whether ageing has an effect on the ability of the prion proteins to protect against Alzheimer's.
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