The number of elderly suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease has been rapidly rising over the past decades. For a long time, scientists believed that misfolded aggregates of amyloid-beta protein accumulate and form plaques in the brain, leading to memory loss and neuronal death. However, the recent failures of the clinical trials indicate the pressing need to understand the missing link between amyloid-beta protein plaques and the disease’s symptoms, a phenomenon that has been studied for over decades.
Researchers led by Director C. Justin LEE from the Center for Cognition and Sociality within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), South Korea, have delved extensively into this topic. Recently in 2020, the group published in the journal Nature Neuroscience that the star-shaped cells in the brain, called astrocytes, are greatly involved in Alzheimer’s Disease and its progression. Driven by this discovery, the group sought to further explore the molecular connection underlying the astrocytic response.
After studying basic cellular pathways and how they change in the star-shaped astrocytes of the brain, the IBS team now has found the missing link: the conversion of amyloid-beta to urea in the brain.
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