12/15/2023 0 Comments Scitech daily![]() ![]() Their work revealed that the translocator protein is critical for the microglia immune cells of the brain to generate their own energy. The team cracked the puzzle with their latest experiments on cells from mice with Alzheimer’s. ![]() The findings of the researchers, led by Nanyang Assistant Professor Anna Barron from NTU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, stem from their work investigating the function of a biomolecule called the translocator protein, which is found in energy-generating parts of immune cells and which is widely used in clinical research to track inflammation.Īsst Prof Barron’s group had previously shown that drugs that activated this protein led to less toxic waste build-up in the brain, which improved the condition of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers’ findings, which were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February 2023, are in line with one of the goals of the NTU 2025 strategic plan to respond to the needs and challenges of healthy living and aging. ![]() While there are ways to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, there are currently no definitive cures for the condition, which tends to affect the elderly and impairs people’s ability to think. Such drugs are of high interest in healthcare. They are part of the NTU team that discovered a “metabolic switch” in brain immune cells that could be targeted as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. To restore the clean-up function, the scientists “switched off” their inefficient metabolism by preventing a key enzyme from attaching to energy-generating parts of the immune cells.įrom left: Research fellow Dr Wong Jia Hui, Nanyang Asst Prof Anna Barron, and final year PhD student Ms Lai Kei Onn from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. Microglia tend to be damaged in people with the disease, which makes them less capable of clearing cellular toxic waste. Scientists at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have uncovered that by blocking and deactivating the aforementioned “switch”, microglial immune cells in the brain were able to remove toxic proteins that can build up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: LKCMedicine/NTU Singapore Researchers have discovered a “metabolic switch” in the brain’s immune cells that could serve as a target for Alzheimer’s disease treatment.Ī recent discovery of an “energy switch” within immune cells in the brain holds promise for the creation of drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most widespread form of dementia. An image of brain immune cells called microglia (green) clustering around a build-up of toxic beta-amyloid (red). ![]()
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