On August 29, 2017, Cell Reports published research by 2015 New Investigator Awards in Alzheimer's Disease recipient, Todd Cohen, PhD.
In a first-of-its-kind study, Cohen and his team at the University of North Carolina show how a damaging cascade of events inside brain cells – and related to Alzheimer’s disease – can be stopped or reversed.
The study, The Deacetylase HDAC6 Mediates Endogenous Neuritic Tau Pathology, examined human cell cultures to show how amyloid beta can trigger a dramatic inflammatory response in immune cells and how that interaction damages neuron and leads to the formation of bead-like structures filled with abnormal tau protein.
Dr. Cohen and fellow researchers also identified two proteins – MMP-9 and HDAC6 – that help promote this harmful, amyloid-to-inflammation-to-tau cascade. These proteins and others associated with them could become drugs targeted to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
In a related feature story, Dr. Cohen told Newswise: "It's exciting that we were able to observe tau -- the major Alzheimer's protein -- inside these beaded structures. We think that preventing these structures from forming would leave people with healthier neurons that are more resistant to Alzheimer's."
The full Cell Reports study can be read here.
The full Newswise article can be read here.
Todd Cohen, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the UNC Neuroscience Center.
For more on Alzheimer’s disease, read our expert-edited InfoAging Guide to Alzheimer’s disease here.
