Irritating winged insect opens doors in Alzheimer research
A research group at the School of Biotechnology at KTH together with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala and Cambridge University has taken a step forward in Alzheimer research. They have been helped by the fruit fly.
Together the researchers from the three schools of learning describe how a new molecule can prevent a poisonous protein which it is considered causes Alzheimer’s disease from accumulating in the brain.
The researchers in the laboratory have found that the molecule not only prevents the protein from forming toxic clumps and so-called amyloid plaque but also that it can reverse the process. By using fruit flies that carried Alzheimer’s, they have been able to show that the same molecule effectively cures the insects of the disease.
The results of the study are so important for Alzheimer research that they have been published in the respected scientific web magazine PLoS Biology.
“The results will hopefully point to new strategies for the development of future cures for Alzheimer’s disease,” says Stefan Ståhl, professor of molecular biotechnology at KTH.
Alzheimer’s is the most common debilitating neurological disease and has been linked to the accumulation of proteins or the formation of clumps. Previous model studies of animals have shown that the clumping formation of the protein Alzheimer-beta peptide (A-beta) causes memory loss and changes in perception similar to those patients affected by Alzheimer’s. When these protein clumps collect in the brain, the brain cells are damaged even if the actual mechanism behind this has not yet been fully explained.
For more information, contact Stefan Ståhl at 08 - 55 37 83 29 or stefans@biotech.kth.se.
Peter Larsson