Protein Aggregation News and Research

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Overexcited neurons not good for cell health

Neurotransmitters have consequences. They initiate events that are critical to a healthy life, giving us the ability to move, to talk, to breathe, to think. But that's if the neurotransmitters are getting it right and sending proper signals downstream to muscle cells, neurons or other cells.

18 Dec 2007

New insights into cataracts

Using the tools and techniques of soft condensed matter physics, a research team in Switzerland has demonstrated that a finely tuned balance of attractions between proteins keeps the lens of the eye transparent, and that even a small change in this balance can cause proteins to aggregate and de-mix.

13 Nov 2007

Aggregation propensity, amyloid peptide toxicity and Alzheimer disease

Cells have evolved multiple mechanisms to ensure proper folding, but a number of molecular and biophysical events - such as changes in pH or temperature, mutations, and oxidation - can disrupt a protein's native shape.

31 Oct 2007

Antioxidant overload

Despite the popular notion that antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, offer health-promoting benefits by protecting against damaging free radicals, a new study in the August 10 issue of the journal Cell reveals that, in fact, balance is the key.

12 Aug 2007

Brain scans of people with mild cognitive impairment show signs of early Alzheimer's disease

For the study, PET scans were performed on the brains of 13 elderly men and women with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 14 elderly people without memory problems.

8 May 2007

Molecular chaperones protect cells

Falsely folded proteins and their aggregations in neurons are considered to be the cause of neurodegenerative diseases, among them Chorea Huntington.

13 Sep 2006

New discovery may improve treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and type 2 diabetes

Proteins are large molecular chains that move around cells carrying vital information on the activity of the organism. The role of each protein depends largely on the form it takes, but the proteins occasionally lose this form when they collide and bind with other proteins.

15 Dec 2005

Scientists characterize the most infectious prion protein particles

A new study of prions - apparently malformed proteins that initiate deadly brain diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans - has yielded surprising information about how the size of prions relates to their infectivity.

10 Sep 2005

Virginia Tech engineer investigates enzyme link to Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer diseases

Several neurologically based afflictions, such as Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer diseases, have been correlated to a higher than normal presence of a specific type of enzymes, called transglutaminases (TGase) in the human body.

30 Aug 2005

Alternate view for pathology of Alzheimer's disease

A new paper from researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine challenges the classic theory that the nerve tangles seen in the brains of Alzheimer's disease (AD) victims are the cause of the disease, but rather proposes that they are a protective response to the disease. Their paper appears in the April issue of the journal Trends in Molecular Medicine.

19 Apr 2005

Family experience guides Alzheimer’s research

After watching his father struggle with and ultimately succumb to Alzheimer’s disease, ASU professor Michael Sierks shifted his research focus from starch hydrolyzing to neurodegenerative diseases.

18 Nov 2004