Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a condition that affects many older people. This illness gradually destroys a person’s memory and their ability to think properly.
It is the most common reason why some older adults end up with dementia. Right now, about 6 million Americans are living with AD.
Scientists at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have been studying AD. Their work is focused on trying to understand why this disease happens.
Virginia M.Y. Lee, Ph.D., and the late John Q. Trojanowski, MD, Ph.D., were two of the main researchers. They found out that one reason why AD happens is because of something called “tau proteins”.
What Are Tau Proteins?
Tau proteins are things inside our bodies. Normally, they help our brains work well. But in people with AD, these proteins get tangled up.
This leads to the death of brain cells or neurons. And when that happens, people start to lose their memory.
Tau proteins are not just involved in AD. They also play a role in over 20 other conditions that affect the brain and movement. These conditions are known as “tauopathies”.
They include illnesses like progressive supranuclear palsy, Pick’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
But scientists do not fully understand why tau proteins get tangled up in people with these diseases. This has made it difficult for them to develop good treatments.
A New Discovery
Xiaolu Yang, Ph.D., a professor at Penn, has been looking at this problem. He and his team have made an exciting discovery.
They found out about a gene that seems to control how tau proteins work. This gene is known as “tripartite motif protein 11” or TRIM11.
Yang and his team looked at over 70 human TRIMs. They found out that TRIM11 is really good at stopping tau proteins from getting tangled up.
TRIM11 does three main things. First, it finds tau proteins (especially the ones that cause diseases) and helps to get rid of them.
Second, it stops the tau proteins from getting messed up in the first place. And third, it breaks down tau proteins that have already become tangled.
The Role of TRIM11 in Alzheimer’s
The team studied brain tissue from people who had died from AD. They compared it with brain tissue from people who did not have AD. They found out that people with AD had a lot less TRIM11 in their brains.
The researchers then tried an experiment. They used a method commonly used in gene therapy to put the TRIM11 gene into the brains of mice. These mice had a disease similar to AD.
The researchers found out that the mice that got the TRIM11 gene had fewer tau proteins getting tangled up. These mice also showed a lot of improvement in their thinking and movement abilities.
What This Could Mean for Alzheimer’s Patients
This discovery is really exciting. It suggests that TRIM11 could help to protect people from getting Alzheimer’s and similar diseases.
It also suggests that we might be able to treat these diseases by increasing the amount of TRIM11 in the brain.
Professor Yang said, “We are eager to work with our colleagues to explore the possibility of developing gene therapies that halt the progression of neurodegenerative disease.”
While there’s still a lot more work to be done, this research gives hope for new ways to fight AD and other brain diseases.
If you care about Alzheimer’s, please read studies about the root cause of Alzheimer’s disease, and new non-drug treatments could help prevent Alzheimer’s.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce dementia risk, and Coconut oil could help improve cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease.
The study was published in Science.
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