A large-scale study of brain proteins has provided new information about Alzheimer's disease. Scientists analyzed the brains of people who died due to the progression of an insidious disease.
Researchers from Emory University have discovered new changes in the brains of people who have died from Alzheimer's disease that are directly related to this disease. The data highlight the key role of proteins in the development of the insidious disease. Understanding these changes will help identify future therapeutic targets for developing new drugs for an as-yet untreatable disorder.
Forgetting to turn off the lights? Dementia will come in 12 years
For decades, scientists have known that much of the underlying damage to Alzheimer's disease is due to changes in brain proteins. But in order to better understand what changes may occur in the brains of patients, scientists usually evaluate the levels of ribonucleic acid, not proteins. RNA is similar in shape to DNA, and often carries the genetic blueprints for proteins from cellular chromosomes into the machinery that makes proteins.
Screening study offers new data on Alzheimer's disease
Because RNA is easier to work with, scientists have relied on it as a means of indirectly reading global changes in protein levels. Now, they've found that direct measurement of protein levels on a large scale provides important clues to understanding Alzheimer's disease that can't be found by analyzing RNA alone. Several protein networks have been identified that may be involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease, including protein communities that are up or down in a coordinated manner in people specifically with Alzheimer's disease. (READ MORE) 
Emory University
Medicine
US private research university located in Atlanta, Georgia