Agent clears toxic proteins and improves cognition in neurodegeneration models
These dual findings, presented by Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in London, mark the first time that the receptors, discoindin domain receptors (DDRs), have been understood to play a role in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. (They are primarily known as potential targets against cancer.) "Activation of these cell receptors appear to prevent brain cells from cleaning out the trash -- the toxic buildup of proteins, such as alpha-synuclein, tau and amyloid, common in neurodegenerative diseases ," says the study's senior author, neurologist Charbel Moussa, MBBS, PhD, director of Georgetown's Laboratory for Dementia and Parkinsonism, and scientific and clinical research director of the GUMC Translational Neurotherapeutics Program. When DDRs are over-expressed, their actions become destructive. One reason may be that DDRs are protein enzymes known as tyrosine kinases that...