New Study: Chaperone Protein Imbalance Promotes toxic Tau Buildup in The Aging Brain
with Guest: Dr. Laura Blair, Ph.D.
Chaperone protein imbalance can play a significant role in initiating toxic accumulation of tau in the aging brain - an early step in the development of Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders known as tauopathies, a new preclinical study by the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) neuroscientists suggests. In humans, misfolding of the protein tau leads to its toxic accumulation inside brain cells, the formation of these tau aggregates into hallmark neurofibrillary tangles, neuron death, and eventually symptoms of cognitive decline such as memory loss and diminished thinking skills.
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Show Notes:
New Study: Chaperone Protein Imbalance Promotes toxic Tau Buildup in The Aging Brain
[4:41] Purpose of the study and previous research review.
- To further investigate the difference of various chaperone proteins with respect to their contribution to misfolding of proteins as well as what happens when chaperone proteins become imbalanced.
[8:00] Heat shock proteins.
- 332 genes are considered the coding for HSP.
- Not all are stress induced.
[9:48] Endoplasmic reticulum and its complex protein folding.
[13:10] Study Design.
- Mimicked chaperone protein imbalance in rodents by injecting directly into the hippocampus.
- Started at 9 months and harvested at 16 months.
[15:00] Study findings.
- Elevations of various chaperones were associated with an increase of tau protein.
[18:00] Are hormones playing a role in the neural inflammation that was observed?
[23:50] Were correlations with insulin resistance observed?
- Decreased fkb-51 mice are more sensitive to high fat diets.
[25:00] Tau protein pathology is associated with ~ 25 different disease states.
[32:06] Surprising findings.
- Didn’t observe tau oligomers accumulating.
[33:43] How tau proteins become sticky.
[35:35] Gender differences in the Alzheimer’s model.
- In humans, it is more skewed to females.
- Mouse models are different depending on the model.
[36:50] Iron accumulation.
[39:22] Is there something that can diminish the effects of tau accumulation?
- There are several promising studies.
- Cognitive training.
- Pick up the book An End to Alzheimer’s.
[50:53] Are the any interventions that can be done at this point.
- Early life- increase education
- Midlife- hypertension and obesity should be reduced.
- Later life- quit smoking, address depression.
