Franklin scientists publish new research on Alzheimer's mystery

The neurodegenerative disease that has affected millions of people continues to puzzle researchers, but a new discovery at UGA sheds light on the mystery:

Matthew Furgerson, a doctoral candidate in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of biochemistry and molecular biology, used cell culture models to study the role of Hirano bodies in cell death induced by AICD, or a fragment of AICD called c31, that are released inside the cell during cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein. This cleavage also produces amyloid-beta, which forms extracellular plaques.

Furgerson found mixtures of amyloid precursor protein, c31 and tau-the protein that forms the intracellular neurofibrillary tangles-or of AICD and tau cause synergistic cell death that is significantly higher than cell death from amyloid precursor protein, c31, AICD or tau alone.

"This synergistic cell death is very exciting," Furgerson said. "Other groups have shown synergy between extracellular amyloid beta or amyloid precursor protein with tau, but these new results show that there may be an important interaction that occurs inside the cells."

The results of this study were published in the September issue of PLoS One. Ruth Furukawa, associate research scientist, and Marcus Fechheimer, University Professor of cellular biology, are co-authors on the paper.

Shedding light on some of the dark corners of Alzheimer's, like these Hirano bodies, will help contribute to an improved understanding of the processes behind the disease. Congratulations to these researchers including doctoral candidate Furgerson on this momentous news about their work. 

Image: Hirano body in the Hippocampus of an older person with Alzheimer-related pathology, used under a Creative Commons license.