APNS SEES ABNORMAL CELL DIVISION AS POSSIBLE PRECURSOR OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

A group of researchers led by Applied NeuroSolutions' founding scientist Peter Davies, has identified an abnormal type of cell division that appears to be a critical part of the chain of events that results in Alzheimer's disease.

In Alzheimer's, neurons undergo degeneration in the brains of affected patients, which eventually leads to neuronal death. Researchers had determined earlier that neurofibrillary tangles, one of the defining pathologies of the disease, are not the only cause of neural death. In this study, researchers set out to pinpoint the other reasons neurons were dying. In a study of mice genetically engineered to develop neurofibrillary tangles, they observed that neurons abnormally expressed cell cycle proteins, which are a prerequisite to cell division. This process does not occur in the "healthy" adult brain, but is prominent in brains of patients with Alzheimer's.