快猫短视频

THERE鈥橲 a striking similarity between the proteins involved in prion diseases
and those in Alzheimer鈥檚, claim chemists in China.

For years, researchers have been intrigued by the apparent similarities
between Alzheimer鈥檚 and prion diseases. Both exist in sporadic and inherited
forms and both involve abnormal brain proteins that clump together to form
amyloid plaques that riddle the brain.

Now Chi Ming Yang and colleagues at Nankai University in Tianjin have found a
shared pattern in the sequences of two proteins that play a key role in these
diseases. Both have a pattern of one reductive amino acid鈥攚hich is more
susceptible to damage from free radicals鈥攆ollowed by three non-reductive
amino acids, Yang says. This finding could help reveal how the proteins turn
into the abnormal forms that cause damage.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an interesting observation,鈥� says Andrea LeBlanc of McGill University
in Montreal. What鈥檚 learned about one disease might help explain the other, she
says.