November 17 2019
Posted July 22, 2015
In healthy individuals, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a fine mesh filter that transports only select molecules from the body’s main circulatory system into the brain in a highly controlled manner, protecting the more delicate brain from a variety of dangers, and transports certain molecules back out of the brain as well. Changes to the structural components of the BBB have been known to be a normal consequence of aging for decades, but it also has been known for many years that the BBBs of Alzheimer’s patients allow more harmful particles to cross into the brain than the BBBs of those without the disease do.
Precisely when and how, though, does the BBB become compromised, and does it happen as a prelude to Alzheimer’s or as a cause of it? These are essential questions. Alzheimer’s unfolds as a complex cascade of molecular events—one event leads to another, which leads to another, and so on. The effort to stop it rests on understanding all of the key cascade events in the correct sequence—a monumental challenge requiring a coordinated
team effort.
The discoveries by Zlokovic—director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute and professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, and a member of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Research Consortium since 2011—bring us one step closer:
“The brain cannot function in the presence of blood-brain barrier breakdown,” said Zlokovic. “Now we know that not only is Abeta important in Alzheimer’s, but also that this barrier, which is regulating transfer of molecules between the brain and blood, and vice versa blood and brain, can become leaky and dysfunctional and lead to subsequent problems likely contributing to onset and progression of dementia.”
Jeffrey Morby, chairman of Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, added, “We created our Research Consortium in order to spur innovation through the speedy sharing of vital data between top researchers. Dr. Zlokovic’s latest advance with PICALM is a perfect example of what we’ve been able to do, and it brings us that much closer to a cure.”
November 17 2019
August 24 2017
April 24 2017
March 14 2017
December 13 2016
October 6 2016