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| June 2005 |
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Minako Hoshi, PhD
Laboratory of Pathogenesis and Basic Research,
Research Group of Alzheimer's Disease,
Mitsubishi Kagaku Institute of Life Sciences |
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A nanosphere of the ß-amyloid (Aß) protein was found to be highly toxic to neurons by researchers at the Mitsubishi Kagaku Institute of Life Sciences.
Although it has been argued that the fibril structure of the protein, a marker for Alzheimer's disease, initiates the death of neurons in the disease, accumulating evidence opposes this fibril hypothesis.
The newly discovered nano structure may be the form that causes Alzheimer's disease. This is termed an amylospheroid (ASPD).
The in vitro discovery involved observing nm-size proteins contained in a solution by atomic force microscopy, and this detection system was developed in cooperation with the Mitsubishi Chemical Group Science and Technology Research Center.
A paper documenting the results of the research was published in the proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.
New research programmes starting from 2004 includes in vivo studies, and are focused on the neuronal cell death from ASPD and tracking the ASPD formation to the onset of the disease in humans. In addition, the development of therapeutic drugs is under consideration through application of the results of this research programme. |
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