A promising approach to blocking beta-amyloid plaque using a novel synthetic protein

Amyloid-beta is a protein fragment that has long been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. It is a known neurotoxin that destroys nerve synapses and then clumps into plaques that lead to nerve cell death.

Now Scientists from the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle have designed a synthetic peptide, or small protein, that can block beta-amyloid in its early and most harmful stages.

These synthetic peptides fold into structures called “alpha sheets”, which bind to small clumps of beta-amyloid & prevent them forming larger clumps.

The researchers believe that the findings could lead to treatments to clear away toxic beta-amyloid as well as show potential as pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics tool.

A paper about the story will be featured soon on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

This novel approach shows is a great potential development, but needs to be seen from the lens that Beta-amyloid clearing or prevention does not address the root cause to Alzheimer’s.

Past research has revealed interesting characteristics that indicate that amyloid-beta plays a protective role against fungal, bacterial, and viral infections.

So even if we work on delivering approaches to preventing it’s build up or it’s removal, this approach fails to address the underlying problem at the root cause.

Yes clearing Beta-amyloid is important (At Brain Mechanics we are working with 6 different non-pharmacological ways to remove beta-amyloid) and yes it is part of the solution, but IT IS NOT THE SOLUTION.

Come check us out to see how we at brain mechanics are using interesting approaches like tDCS, tACS, PEMF, neurofeedback, the RECode Protocol and XAI to eradicate Alzheimer’s from the face of the earth