SUPPRESSING PROTEIN MAY STEM ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE PROCESS

Runaway regulator clogs removal of toxic debris -- NIH funded study
Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered a potential strategy for developing treatments to stem the disease process in Alzheimer's disease. It's based on unclogging removal of toxic debris that accumulates in patients' brains, by blocking activity of a little-known regulator protein called CD33.
"Too much CD33 activity appears to promote late-onset Alzheimer's by preventing support cells from clearing out toxic plaques, key risk factors for the disease," explained Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, a grantee of the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute on Aging (NIA). "Future medications that impede CD33 activity in the brain might help prevent or treat the disorder."
Tanzi and colleagues report on their findings April 25, 2013 in the journal Neuron.
"These results reveal a previously unknown, potentially powerful mechanism for protecting neurons from damaging toxicity and inflammatio ...