Key factor in formation of Alzheimer's

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A team of South Korean scientists said Wednesday they have discovered a crucial factor in the formation of Alzheimer's disease, a finding likely to help develop a treatment for the neuro-degenerative disorder.

Alzheimer's disease causes a progressive loss of memory and impaired cognitive capabilities. It can be inherited, but more commonly strikes victims in old age.

The team led by Chung Sung-kwon, a medical professor at Seoul's Sungkyunkwan University, discovered that the density of PIP2, a type of an organic compound forming the base of brain cells, plays a crucial part in the inherited form of the disease.

The team claimed to have made the discovery for the first time in the world.

The familial type is known to be formed from an overflow of proteins called beta amyloid in brain cells among people with mutated presenilin, another protein. However, scientists in the past could not find the correlation between the two proteins.

The team discovered that the density of PIP2 plays a key role in controlling the level of the two proteins, and that mutations of presenilin led to an increase in PIP2 density, while an artificial increase in the PIP2 density caused a fall in beta amyloids.

"We believe that a cure for the disease could be produced when and if we figure out how to control the concentration of PIP2," Chung said.

"Our team is in the process of developing means to control the PIP2 density."
While the breakthrough is based on the more uncommon, familial form of Alzheimer's disease, Chung believs that the late-onset type could arise from a similar reason.

The team's feat was published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official journal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.