Specific proteins associated with ovarian cancer may worsen neurodegeneration in patients with Alzheimer's disease

Recently, scientists from Houston Methodist cancer center and other institutions identified a special protein in ovarian cancer, which may promote the decline of brain function and the development of Alzheimer's disease Researcher Stephen T.C According to Wong, our results show that one protein with known function may play another role, which may help to develop new strategies for disease treatment; researchers have revealed the different roles of β - amyloid protein in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, and many scientists engaged in Alzheimer's disease research only focus on β - amyloid The association of proteins or β - amyloid with other proteins, such as tau In this study, the researchers revealed the new role of a protein called ociad1 (ovarian cancer immune response antigen domain contains 1 protein) The first researchers found that ociad1 had some effect on the metastasis of ovarian cancer and the metabolism of stem cells Later, the researchers also found the existence of this protein in human brain cells, which would damage neurons and synapses in the brain, So as to induce neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease patients The researchers pointed out that this study solved a basic problem of Alzheimer's disease, that is, β - amyloid protein may appear 20 years before brain function declines, and this protein is involved in the occurrence of progressive neurodegeneration Analyzing the factors that promote the progressive decline of brain function in patients with Alzheimer's disease may help to develop new diagnostic biomarkers and new therapies The researchers combined computational methods with laboratory research to analyze brain tissue of the late Alzheimer's disease patients and mice models They found that ociad1 may play a key role in the progressive neurodegeneration of the disease by damaging the function of cell mitochondria As the energy factory of cells, the damage of mitochondria may lead to trickle cells in the brain The death effect can cause neuron damage Researcher Xuping Dr Li said that we use the strategy of system biology to observe whether we can find a different mechanism to induce Alzheimer's disease neurodegeneration Now we have identified ociad1 as a new neurodegeneration related factor, and predicting its function can help to determine whether the factor will mediate the growth of β - amyloid protein in cells by damaging the function of mitochondria Phase effect and damage effect of synapse In general, Alzheimer's disease research focuses on several main topics, namely, the key role of amyloid protein in the process of neuron loss, and how the toxic protein can induce damage by interacting with tau protein; however, until recently, researchers thought that β amyloid protein might be a bystander, and they also questioned that it is Whether it can really induce neurodegenerative diseases In the next step, researchers want to clarify whether ociad1 plays a key role in the interaction of two known changes in Alzheimer's disease (β - amyloid protein and tau aggregation) If so, researchers may need to conduct additional research to clarify the potential of ociad1 as a biomarker or therapeutic target At present, Alzheimer's disease affects more than 5.8 million Americans, and with the increase of the aging population, the disease will become more popular According to the data of Alzheimer's disease association and American CDC, Alzheimer's disease is currently the most expensive disease to treat in the United States, and the treatment of the disease is expected to cost US $290 billion in 2019.