New mouse strain: defective quality control in the brain

Proteins perform all the important tasks in our body: they transport substances, protect disease, support cells and catalyze chemical reactions-this is just a small part of it

Each cell contains a complete mechanism to help proteins fold, correct folding errors and discard misfolded proteins

In healthy cells, this quality control is very effective

New mouse line

In order to study the quality control deficiencies of individual diseases in more detail, scientists led by Irina Dudanova have developed a new mouse line

The researchers introduced the proteins that normally make fireflies glow into the neurons of mice

The researchers then crossed the newly developed mouse line with mice representing different neurodegenerative diseases

Intracellular variation

In the Alzheimer's disease model, the misfolded protein forms a precipitate in the cell body, while in the nucleus of Huntington's disease mice, it clumps together

With the new line of mice, scientists now have tools that specialize in this complexity—whether in healthy neurons or diseased neurons

Journal Reference :

1. Sonja Blumenstock, Elena Katharina Schulz-Trieglaff, Kerstin Voelkl, Anna-Lena Bolender, Paul Lapios, Jana Lindner, Mark S Hipp, F Ulrich Hartl, Rüdiger Klein, Irina Dudanova.