EntomoNews

For the first time, scientists at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown (CCU), in Lisbon, Portugal, have shown that neuronal cell death in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may actually not be a bad thing - on the contrary, it may be the result of a cell quality control mechanism trying to protect the brain from the accumulation of malfunctioning neurons. Their results, which were obtained using fruit flies that had been genetically modified to mimic the symptoms of human AD, were published in the journal Cell Reports.

 

Losing neurons can sometimes not be that bad | EurekAlert! Science News, 26.12.2018

 

• Culling Less Fit Neurons Protects against Amyloid-β-Induced Brain Damage and Cognitive and Motor Decline: Cell Reports, 26.12.2018 https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)31889-8

 

[Image] Graphical abstract

 

Keywords
cell fitness / neurodegeneration / apoptosis / β-amyloid / neuronal selection / Alzheimer’s / Drosophila / cell competition / azot