Infection Defense May Spur Alzheimer’s
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Infection Defense May Spur Alzheimer’sInfection Defense May Spur Alzheimer’sFor years,High pressure sodium bulba prevailing theory has been that one of the chief villains in Alzheimer’s disease has no real function other than as a waste product that the brain never properly disposed of.The material, a protein called beta amyloid, or A-beta, #xpiles up into tough plaques that destroy signals between nerves. When that happens, people lose their memory, their personality changes and they stop recognizing friends and family.But now researchers at Harvard suggest that the protein has a real and unexpected function — it may be part of the brain’s normal defenses against invading bacteria and other microbes.Other Alzheimer’s researchers say the findings, reported in the current issue of the journal PLoS One, are intriguing, though it is not clear whether they will lead to new ways of preventing or treating the disease.The new hypothesis got its start late one Friday evening in the summer of 2007 in a laboratory at Harvard Medical School. The lead researcher, Rudolph E. Tanzi, a neurology professor who is also director of the genetics and aging unit at Massachusetts General Hospital,High pressure sodium bulbsaid he had been looking at a list of genes that seemed to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease.To his surprise, many looked just like genes associated with the so-called innate immune system, a set of proteins the body uses to fight infections. The system is particularly important in the brain, #xbecause antibodies cannot get through the blood-brain barrier, the membrane that protects the brain. When the brain is infected, it relies on the innate immune system to protect it.That evening, after the lab’s usual end-of-the-week beer hour, Dr. Tanzi wandered into the office of a junior faculty member, Robert D. Moir, and mentioned what he had seen. As Dr. Tanzi recalled, Dr. Moir turned to him and said, “Yeah, well, look at this.”He handed Dr. Tanzi a spreadsheet. #xIt was a comparison of A-beta and a well-known protein of the innate immune system,Compact fluorescent lamp,High pressure sodium bulbLL-37. The likenesses were uncanny.相关的主题文章：
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