A newly defined cell-death pathway may explain how toxic proteins kill neurons in Alzheimer\u2019s disease and frontotemporal dementia.<\/p>\n

Markers of karyoptosis, a newly defined form of cell death, have turned up in Alzheimer\u2019s and frontotemporal dementia brains.<\/p>\n

Cell death in dementia has long posed a frustrating problem. Toxic proteins pile up inside neurons in Alzheimer\u2019s disease and frontotemporal dementia, but the exact route from that buildup to the loss of brain cells has remained hazy. A study from\u00a0King\u2019s College London<\/a>\u00a0and the UK Dementia Research Institute now argues that one missing piece may be a newly characterized process called karyoptosis, in which a neuron\u2019s nucleus shrivels and breaks down before the cell dies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The work, published in\u00a0 Nature Communications<\/a>, links that process to proteotoxic stress, the burden created when damaged or misfolded proteins accumulate and the cell\u2019s cleanup machinery can no longer keep pace. In post-mortem brain tissue, the team found markers of karyoptosis in a substantial share of neurons from people with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration, suggesting this is not a rare quirk of the lab but a feature of human disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis study is the culmination of a 10-year journey at King\u2019s, from when we first identified karyoptosis in a relatively rare disease to discovering that it is a common feature of dementias which affect millions of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.thebrighterside.news\/post\/scientists-discover-new-cause-of-neuron-death-in-alzheimers-and-dementia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"