BOSTON: An international team of researchers has found that there is a shorter form of beta-amyloid that safely binds copper when in excess protecting the brain tissue from damage. The discovery will help researchers better understand the complicated brain chemistry behind dementia and specifically Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers have been intensely interested in the role of beta-amyloid in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This is because clumps of the protein are formed in brains of people with the illness.
In the late 1990s, high levels of copper were discovered within these clumps. Copper is essential to health, but too much can produce harmful free radicals. Many scientists began to suspect that this copper might be contributing to the disease. They found that beta-amyloid can bind to copper indiscriminately and allow it to produce these damaging free radicals.