Related topics: alzheimer s disease

Glitter from silver lights up Alzheimer's dark secrets

Scientists have caught a glimpse of the elusive toxic form of the Alzheimer's molecule, during its attempt to bore into the outer covering of a cell decoy, using a new method involving laser light and fat-coated silver nano-particles.

Forgotten and lost - when proteins 'shut down' our brain

(PhysOrg.com) -- Which modules of the tau protein, in neurons of Alzheimer disease patients, may act in a destructive manner were investigated by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Göttingen) ...

Discovery lights path for Alzheimer's research

A probe invented at Rice University that lights up when it binds to a misfolded amyloid beta peptide—the kind suspected of causing Alzheimer's disease—has identified a specific binding site on the protein that could facilitate ...

Active compounds against Alzheimer's disease

More than half of all cases of dementia in the elderly can be attributed to Alzheimer's disease. Despite vast research efforts, an effective therapy has not been developed, and treatment consists of dealing with the symptoms. ...

Alzheimer's research yields potential drug target

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara and several other institutions have found laboratory evidence that a cluster of peptides may be the toxic agent in Alzheimer's disease. Scientists say the discovery may lead to new drugs for ...

Amyloid probes gain powers in search for Alzheimer's cause

A metallic molecule being studied at Rice University begins to glow when bound to amyloid protein fibrils of the sort implicated in Alzheimer's disease. When triggered with ultraviolet light, the molecule glows much brighter, ...

Longer-lived imaging agents could hasten Alzheimer's research

In the past few years, despite the best efforts of scientists and medical researchers, drug after drug designed to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease has failed in clinical trials. Some had no effect on the ...

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Beta amyloid

Amyloid beta (Aβ or Abeta) is a peptide of 39–43 amino acids that appear to be the main constituent of amyloid plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. Similar plaques appear in some variants of Lewy body dementia and in inclusion body myositis, a muscle disease. Aβ also forms aggregates coating cerebral blood vessels in cerebral amyloid angiopathy. These plaques are composed of a tangle of regularly ordered fibrillar aggregates called amyloid fibers, a protein fold shared by other peptides such as prions associated with protein misfolding diseases. Research on laboratory rats suggest that the two-molecule, soluble form of the peptide is a causative agent in the development of Alzheimer's and that the two-molecule form is the smallest synaptotoxic species of soluble amyloid beta oligomer

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