Common enzyme interaction could hold clues to Alzheimer鈥檚
平特五不中 researchers have identified a key two-part process in normal brain development that could shed new light on what causes some people to develop Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. Their findings appear in the March issue of Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Dr. Hemant Paudel, an associate professor of medicine at 平特五不中 and Alzheimer鈥檚 researcher at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital, led a three-person team that used gene-modified mice and brain cell cultures in search of clues to the origins of Alzheimer鈥檚.
They found that an enzyme called cyclin-dependent protein kinase 5 inhibits the activity of another enzyme called protein phosphatase 1. Both enzymes contribute to the functioning of the so-called tau protein. Tau protein has the potential to cause neuropathological tangles observed post-mortem in the brains of patients who had Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
鈥淏ecause one enzyme blocks the other, it鈥檚 similar to when a ruptured water pipe leaks into a basement with a blocked drain,鈥� explained Dr. Paudel. 鈥淭his raises questions such as, 鈥楥an we close the tap and unblock the drain 鈥� or, in the case of our research, can we induce tangles in the cell and if so, can we stop them from developing?鈥欌��
The brain-wasting disease currently affects an estimated 300,000 Canadians over the age of 65, according to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. 鈥淎lzheimer鈥檚 costs the Canadian government about $6 billion a year to treat,鈥� said Dr. Paudel. 鈥淣ot knowing what causes it makes it difficult to treat but this discovery gives us a model to work on.鈥�
Dr. Paudel has been working on this research with collaborator Dr. Lorraine Chalifour and post-doctoral fellow Dr. Tong Li for the past three years, having earlier discovered precisely what roles the two enzymes play in tau protein action.
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