18 Sep 2015 --- We have known for some years that Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by two types of lesions, amyloid plaques and degenerated tau protein. Cholesterol plays an important role in the physiopathology of this disease. Two French research teams (Inserm/CEA/University of Lille/University of Paris-Sud) have just shown, in a rodent model, that over expressing an enzyme that can eliminate excess cholesterol from the brain may have a beneficial action on the tau component of the disease, and completely correct it. This is the first time that a direct relationship has been shown between the tau component of Alzheimer’s disease and cholesterol. This work is published in the September 2015 issue of Human Molecular Genetics.
