Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Alzheimer's in minibrains

In the majority of cases, dementia can be traced back to Alzheimer's disease. Its causes are not really understood yet. What is known is that plaques form from misfolded proteins and that there is an increase in neuronal cell death levels in the brain. However, the plaques don't necessarily go hand in hand with any symptoms. Dr. Thorsten Müller, Head of the research group Cell Signalling at the Chair of Molecular Biochemistry at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), suspects other deposits to cause the disease, namely ones that form in the nuclei. He intends to verify this hypothesis using tissue that resembles that of the brain. Rubin, the RUB's science magazine, published a report on his research.

* This article was originally published here