– credit, NIH Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have demonstrated for the first time that the protein midkine plays a preventative role in Alzheimer’s disease. Midkine is known to accumulate in Alzheimer’s patients, but rather than accelerate the disease, it seems to prevents a second, sticky protein from clumping together—the chief hallmark in this form of dementia. Alzheimer’s …
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Air Pollution Linked to Toxic Protein Clumps Driving Lewy Body Dementia
Summary: A new study reveals a molecular link between fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) and Lewy body dementia, a devastating neurodegenerative condition. By combining human epidemiological data and animal experiments, researchers showed that PM2.5 exposure triggers toxic clumps of alpha-synuclein in the brain, similar to those seen in patients. Mice exposed to pollution developed brain atrophy, cognitive decline, and widespread …
Read More »Tiny protein dismantles the toxic clumps behind Alzheimer’s
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital demonstrated for the first time that the protein midkine plays a preventative role against Alzheimer’s disease. Midkine is known to accumulate in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Now, researchers have connected it with amyloid beta, a protein that accumulates in the brain, causing assemblies that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. In work published on August …
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