• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

A Shapeshifting Protein Is Leading Alzheimer’s Disease Researchers Down A New Path

November 28, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Complex problems often require creative solutions, and the increasing global burden of Alzheimer’s disease certainly qualifies as a complex problem. Few diseases so capture the public’s attention, and few spark as much fear. Yet those not spending every day closely following this research might be surprised to learn how much debate still rages over its causes and the best approaches to treatment. Earlier this year, we wrote about a bold new theory that had been proposed in a preprint; now, after peer review, the study has been published.

“It’s excellent to see the paper published and the resubmission/revision peer review process improved it considerably,” senior author Dr Ben Goult, Professor of Mechanistic Cell Biology at the University of Liverpool, told IFLScience.

Advertisement

Back in March, Goult spoke to us about the study, which centers around a protein called talin. It has a peculiar ability to switch back and forth between two stable shapes. Goult and colleagues had previously proposed that this ability might be leveraged in the brain in the same way that a mechanical computer uses binary switches, allowing memories to be stored like a series of “0s” and “1s”.

Talin’s shapeshifting properties also resulted in a collaboration between Goult and some chemist colleagues, who recognized that the protein’s ability to fold and unfold could lend itself well to shock absorption. The first study on a talin-based hydrogel, led by then-PhD student Jack Doolan, was published in Nature Nanotechnology last year.

But back to the brain. All that work on memory, plus further experimental findings, led Goult and colleagues to start to consider the potential role of talin in memory loss, such as that experienced by Alzheimer’s disease patients.

We are very excited by the work which we think will be quite controversial and disruptive but identifies new directions for Alzheimer’s research to focus on.

Professor Ben Goult

In collaboration with a group who were systematically searching for proteins that might interact with a key Alzheimer’s protein called the amyloid precursor protein (APP), they discovered that talin basically ticked all the boxes.

Advertisement

Talin “has just about the biggest effect on APP processing out of all proteins!” Goult told IFLScience.

The paper presents evidence that talin can directly bind to APP and suggests how this interaction could play a role in Alzheimer’s.

Correct processing of APP is essential to the healthy functioning of the brain – when this starts to go wrong, we see the buildup of plaques of misfolded amyloid-β protein that are one of the hallmarks of the disease.

The theory, as laid out in the new paper, is that APP may exist as a mesh that bridges the synapse (tiny gaps between nerve cells). This is also the site of the “binary code” of talin molecules that theoretically store some of our memories. If APP processing goes wrong, synaptic synchronicity breaks down and the binary code becomes corrupted, leading to memory loss.

Advertisement

We’re using the word “theory” a lot here, and that’s intentional. These ideas are novel, but the team believes they warrant further investigation. “We are very excited by the work which we think will be quite controversial and disruptive but identifies new directions for Alzheimer’s research to focus on,” Goult told IFLScience.

The team lay out six testable hypotheses in the paper to guide this future research – and they’re already getting started.

“The link between talin and APP also provides more evidence of a central role for talin and the mechanical memory machinery in the synapse. Our current research is focussed on testing whether cancer drugs that stabilise talin complexes in cells in culture alter APP processing in neurons,” said Goult.

“And our main research focus is on understanding talin’s role in coordinating synaptic function and in established neuronal memory processes like long term potentiation. 2025 will be very exciting.”

Advertisement

The study is published in the journal Open Biology.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. JPMorgan slashes price target for troubled China property giant Evergrande
  2. Generali’s top investor ups voting stake ahead of AGM pick of CEO
  3. Google wants to use AI to time traffic lights more efficiently
  4. A Giant Yellow Blob Is Currently Engulfing The Sonoran Desert

Source Link: A Shapeshifting Protein Is Leading Alzheimer’s Disease Researchers Down A New Path

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The Bizarre 1997 Experiment That Made A Frog Levitate
  • There’s A Very Good Reason Why October 1582 On Your Phone Is Missing 10 Days
  • Skynet-1A: Military Spacecraft Launched 56 Years Ago Has Been Moved By Persons Unknown
  • There’s A Simple Solution To Helping Avoid Erectile Dysfunction (But You’re Not Going To Like It)
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 Billion Years Old, This Rare Spider Is Half-Female, Half-Male Split Down The Middle, And Much More This Week
  • Why Do Trains Not Have Seatbelts? It’s Probably Not What You Think
  • World’s Driest Hot Desert Just Burst Into A Rare And Fleeting Desert Bloom
  • Theoretical Dark Matter Infernos Could Melt The Earth’s Core, Turning It Liquid
  • North America’s Largest Mammal Once Numbered 60 Million – Then Humans Nearly Drove It To Extinction
  • North America’s Largest Ever Land Animal Was A 21-Meter-Long Titan
  • A Two-Headed Fossil, 50/50 Spider, And World-First Butt Drag
  • Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Losing Buckets Of Water Every Second – And It’s Got Cyanide
  • “A Historic Shift”: Renewables Generated More Power Than Coal Globally For First Time
  • The World’s Oldest Known Snake In Captivity Became A Mom At 62 – No Dad Required
  • Biggest Ocean Current On Earth Is Set To Shift, Spelling Huge Changes For Ecosystems
  • Why Are The Continents All Bunched Up On One Side Of The Planet?
  • Why Can’t We Reach Absolute Zero?
  • “We Were Onto Something”: Highest Resolution Radio Arc Shows The Lowest Mass Dark Object Yet
  • How Headsets Made For Cyclists Are Giving Hearing And Hope To Kids With Glue Ear
  • It Was Thought Only One Mammal On Earth Had Iridescent Fur – Turns Out There’s More
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version