Nuak1

A Potential New Strategy to Prevent Alzheimer’s

NEUROSCIENCE NEWSOCTOBER 22, 2016Summary: Researchers have successfully prevented early events that occur in the brain before Alzheimer’s symptoms are evident.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine.

Taking a pill that prevents the accumulation of toxic molecules in the brain might someday help prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease, according to scientists at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The study, published today in Cell Press journal Neuron, took a three-pronged approach to help subdue early events that occur in the brain long before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are evident. The scientists were able to prevent those early events and the subsequent development of brain pathology in experimental animal models in the lab.

Brain section from mouse carrying the dementia-causing P301S mutation in human tau shows accumulation of tau neurofibrillary tangles (in dark brown, left). When Nuak1 levels are decreased by 50 percent (P301S/Nuak1+/-; right), fewer tau tangles accumulate. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to The Zoghbi lab/Baylor College of Medicine.