'Mad Cow' might help in fighting Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Florida have for the first time discovered a killing mechanism that could underpin a range of the most intractable neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS. It is a commonly known idea that misfolded proteins are a representative occurrence in the family of diseases comprising, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s diseases, ALS and other conditions.
In an ongoing study the researchers have revealed the mechanism of toxicity of a misfolded form of the protein that underlies prion diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (“mad cow disease”) and its human equivalent, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The scientists used a misfolded form of the prion disease protein, called TPrP. Salient features of their findings are:
1. Using biochemical techniques, the researchers demonstrated that TPrP induces neuronal death by profoundly depleting NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide).
2. Restoring NAD+ proved to be the critical factor for the rescue of neurons subjected to TPrP injury. Even when added three days after TPrP exposure, an infusion of NAD+ reversed within only a few hours the fate of neurons that had been doomed to destruction.
3. Loss of NAD+ is suggestive of some other neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s where NAD+ depletion could play a role in mitochondrial failure.
References:
1. News article
2. The article is published in the journal Brain. No citation is provided.
