Researchers set up a trap for a protein responsible for 3 brain diseases

One of the proteins causes three brain diseases, including frontal dementia, which accounts for 45% of cases, 60% of Alzheimer's disease and 97% of cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which damage nerve cells and cause disability. .

A team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh (USA) has erected a trap for this protein called "TDP-43", which does not cause the formation of toxic blocks responsible for these diseases, and this trap called "nucleotide" , a compound that goes into the construction of nuclear acids.

The RNA protein binds to normal cells with TDP-43, thus preventing it from forming toxic clusters. While inspiring this natural defense mechanism, the Neuron research team created a group of nucleotides mimicking proteins. DNA Raybose.

"We call this mechanism (the taste of nucleotides)," said Christopher Donnelly, assistant professor of neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, in a report published at the University of Pittsburgh. Toxic ".