Protein Regulates Enzyme Linked to Alzheimer's
Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine have found that increasing levels of a protein called GGA3 prevented the accumulation of BACE1, an enzyme linked to Alzheimer's disease. BACE1 produces a toxin that researchers have pinpointed as a cause of Alzheimer's.
Giuseppina Tesco, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the department of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine, previously discovered that levels of the GGA3 protein were significantly lower in the brains of Alzheimer's patients than those free of the disease. In the current in vitro study, the team also found, unexpectedly, that the GGA3 protein must bind with the regulatory protein ubiquitin to lower enzyme levels.
The findings were published online May 18 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.