Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
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Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#2Pretty awesome work. Looks like we don’t have obvious ways to avoid these classes of proteins in the same way we can just avoid tainted meat and abstain from cannibalism...
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#3This is an absolutely astonishing game-changer for Alzheimer's research. The scientist who discovered prions (and got a Nobel prize for it) now has convincing evidence that the proteins that cause Alzheimer's are themselves prions. Amazing, scary, and hopeful all at the same time.
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#4Are there any curable prion diseases right now? As far as I can tell from googling, CJD does not have any known cure. If there aren't, does it mean we need to come up with a completely new class of treatments?
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#5Are there any curable prion diseases right now? As far as I can tell from googling, CJD does not have any known cure. If there aren't, does it mean we need to come up with a completely new class of treatments?
There are no current treatments for Alzheimers that do much of anything. If the problem/cause is more confidently known, at least there is a more narrow target to aim at.
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#6This is an absolutely astonishing game-changer for Alzheimer's research. The scientist who discovered prions (and got a Nobel prize for it) now has convincing evidence that the proteins that cause Alzheimer's are themselves prions. Amazing, scary, and hopeful all at the same time.
To someone with minimal background in biology, prions are a fascinating and terrifying phenomenon right out of speculative fiction. Absolutely amazing and scary.
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#7Does this mean that inflammation of the brain is to be ruled out as a cause?
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#8Are there any curable prion diseases right now? As far as I can tell from googling, CJD does not have any known cure. If there aren't, does it mean we need to come up with a completely new class of treatments?
Speculatively, in the future we may be able to design proteins that would target the prions and destroy them or refold them into less harmful shapes. To do that we would need to 1. know what protein shape would be required and 2. be able to figure out how to make that shape (what sequence would happen to fold itself into that shape). I would think we would need to advance quite a bit more in protein science before that is feasible.
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#9Does this mean that inflammation of the brain is to be ruled out as a cause?
What is inflammation?
Re: Proteins central to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease act as prions – study
#10Does this mean that inflammation of the brain is to be ruled out as a cause?
No..