Mitochondrial toxicity in Alzheimer's disease

'Dr Lustbader's research is very exciting because it may provide one of the missing pieces in the puzzle of how the protein amyloid beta causes the death of nerve cells that is the beginning of Alzheimer's disease.

The link between the occurrence of amyloid plaques in the brain and the death of nerve cells has seemed obvious for many years, but there has been no clear experimental evidence for a mechanism that would explain how amyloid beta cause the death of nerve cells.

This paper provides a possible explanation of how amyloid beta may cause cell death and points towards potential targets for drug therapy. This is very basic, but very important research. There is currently no real treatment for Alzheimer's disease that halts or reverses the disease.

Research that can explain the development of the disease at the molecular and cellular level is still required in order to identify the processes that start the disease and that may be manipulated with drugs, if these can be successfully developed.'

Dr Susanne Sorensen
Head of Research