Human brain may harbour Alzheimer's therapeutics

摘要

A computer model designed to screen molecules for potential Alzheimer's therapeutics has come up with a hit from an unlikely source: the human brain. Alzheimer's is believed to be caused by the aggregation of a protein called beta amyloid in the brains of affected people. So far, the search for molecules to prevent this aggregation has focused mainly on already-approved drugs or natural products chemistry. But, as Dalhousie University chemist Donald Weaver points out, Alzheimer's progresses at different rates in different people. "We wondered if there is a factor within the brain of some people that somehow prevents them from getting it," says Weaver.