Credit: National Institutes of Health
In the Alzheimer’s affected brain, abnormal collections of the tau protein accumulate and form tangles (seen in blue) within neurons, harming synaptic communication between nerve cells.
Research Alert
UC San Diego researchers and collaborators in Italy identified an inhibitor that may be effective against DYRK1A, an emerging target for Alzheimer’s disease. In the lab, the inhibitor reduced phosphate tags added to tau — a protein that accumulates in Alzheimer’s neurons — by enzymes called kinases, thus stabilizing cell structures. They say this kinase inhibitor is a promising prototype for new therapeutics that tackle tau hyperphosphorylation, which occurs in some neurodegenerative diseases.
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