Research
A trapped drop of water might be the secret to how brain diseases spread from cell to cell
Earth.com · By Luis Arrais ·
The Brief
- Water fills gaps between molecules in the brain, helping keep them wet and functional.
- In tau protein tangles of Alzheimer's disease, trapped water marks the spot where one damaged tau molecule grabs the next, and releasing that water is what pulls the two molecules together.
Why it matters
The findings describe a molecular mechanism that may help explain how damaged tau spreads from cell to cell, a process linked to brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Who’s affected
- neuroscientists and Alzheimer's researchers
- #alzheimers
- #tau
- #protein aggregation
- #neurodegeneration
- #brain diseases
Water fills gaps in the brain between molecules, playing an important role by keeping them wet. Yet in the tau protein tangles of Alzheimer’s disease, water marks the exact spot where one damaged tau grabs the next. Letting go of that water is what pulls the two tau molecules…