In certain parts of the brain, cells called neurons go through a cycle of death and replenishment. New research from Rockefeller University’s Fernando Nottebohm, Ph.D., shows that these replaceable neurons share something in common with the neurons that die in people with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s: both have unusually low levels of a protein called UCHL1. “It would be ironic if the shortfall in a same gene brokered the path to brain disease or rejuvenation,” says Nottebohm, who is Dorothea Leonhardt Professor and head of the Laboratory of Animal Behavior. “But naturally replaced neurons may hold the key to understanding processes of neurodegeneration."The results appear in the May 23 Early Edition issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
