'First Glimpse' of Alzheimer's-Causing Structures Inside Brain

For the first time, scientists have unraveled the structure of proteins in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The findings provide clues into how these disease-causing proteins interact with each other and the brain and may help in the discovery of new targets for treating the disease.

Alzheimer's affects roughly 5.8 million Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The progressive disease is the most common form of dementia and is associated with memory loss and cognitive decline in regions of the brain involved in thought, memory and language.

Today, there is no known cure for Alzheimer's, although scientists believe it is caused by the abnormal buildup of proteins in and around brain cells. In particular, two key proteins have been identified for their role in dementia development: β-amyloid and tau.

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The β-amyloid proteins clump together around the outside of our brain cells in aggregations known as amyloid plaques, while tau proteins are thought to form abnormal filaments that grow on the inside of our cells and spread throughout our brain.

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Now, for the first time, scientists have zoomed in on these proteins to gain a better understanding of how these structures are arranged and how they might interact with other molecules in the brain.

"This first glimpse of the structure of molecules inside the human brain offers further clues to what happens to proteins in Alzheimer's disease but also sets out an experimental approach that can be applied to better understand a broad range of other devastating neurological diseases," said lead author Rene Frank, an associate professor in the University of Leeds' School of Biology, in a statement.

Using state-of-the-art imaging technology, the team—from the U.K.'s University of Leeds in collaboration with Amsterdam University Medical Center, Zeiss Microscopy and the U.K.'s University of Cambridge—was able to observe these protein buildups in an Alzheimer's disease donor brain.

The findings are part of a larger research project to understand the structure of key proteins in our cells and tissues and how they are arranged in their native environment (i.e., in our bodies.) The team hopes its findings will improve our understanding of how proteins work together and affect each other, as well as provide new potential targets for future therapeutics and diagnostics.

You can read the full study in the journal Nature.

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