Removal of an enzyme that regulates the activity of many proteins can suppress key features of Alzheimer’s disease in experimental models, researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) recently reported in the Journal of Neuroscience (May 12, 2004).Using well-established mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, the investigators examined how changing levels of the enzyme Fyn affects key aspects of the disease, including accumulation of large clumps of amyloid proteins in the brain (so-called plaques) and changes in the complex neuronal networks in which memories are formed and stored. Genetic engineering strategies were used to increase or decrease the expression of Fyn, which regulates many other proteins through the attachment of specific groups of atoms known as phosphate groups.
