STAT+: Study reveals new role for tau, a top target for Alzheimer’s drug development
The protein tau is top target for Alzheimer’s drug development, and a new study bolsters those efforts by describing a previously unknown role that tau plays in neurodegeneration.
A groundbreaking study has unveiled an unexpected role for tau, a protein that has long been a focal point in Alzheimer's drug research. The findings, led by a team of Stanford scientists, shed new light on the protein's influence on neurodegeneration and point to a potentially novel therapeutic approach. The researchers discovered that tau disrupts the normal flow of electrons within a cell's mitochondria, its energy-generating organelle.
By causing electrons to move in the wrong direction, tau triggers the production of harmful reactive oxygen species, causing cellular stress and inflammation. Blocking this process, termed reverse electron transport, has been found to mitigate many of the detrimental effects, enhancing learning and memory in both fruit flies and mice models.
While the efficacy of this strategy in humans remains to be determined, preliminary evidence from analyses of cultured human cells and patient brain samples indicates that obstructing the reverse electron transport could bolster neuronal health. Two of the study's co-authors have already launched a biotech company to explore the feasibility of this novel approach. The complete story is available at STAT+.
Written by urgent.news from STAT News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
