First look at atomic structures of protein tangles found in Alzheimer's disease
The team of the MRC scientists -- led by Michel Goedert, MD, PhD, and Sjors Scheres, PhD -- along with IU Distinguished Professor Bernardino Ghetti, MD, and Assistant Research Professor Holly Garringer, PhD, of the IU School of Medicine Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, are the first to present high-resolution structures of tau filaments from the brain of a patient with a confirmed diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Ghetti said their findings, published online July 5 in Nature , represent one of the major discoveries of the past 25 years in the field of Alzheimer's disease research. "This is a tremendous step forward," Dr. Ghetti said. "It's clear that tau is extremely important to the progression of Alzheimer's disease and certain forms of dementia. In terms of designing therapeutic agents, the possibilities are now enormous." Tau proteins are a stabilizing element in healthy brains, but when they become defective, the pro...