Study: Protein Could Be Newest Target for Alzheimer's Drugs

A protein known as cypin could be the newest target for the drug treatment of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study reported in the January 19 online issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey discovered that cypin regulates nerve cell or neuron branching in the brain. Such branching is an important process in normal brain function and is thought to increase when a person learns. A reduction in branching is associated with certain neurological diseases, they noted.

Lead researcher Bonnie Firestein said the identification of cypin and the understanding how it works in the brain opens up new avenues for the treatment of serious neurological disorders and paves the way to designing new drugs that could target this protein.

Firestein, an assistant professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers University, first identified and isolated cypin in 1999. She is currently focusing on how it works in the hippocampus, a structure in the brain associated with the regulation of emotions and memory.

"We knew that cypin existed elsewhere in the body where it performs other functions, but no one knew why it was present in the brain," said Firestein, whose new research determined that cypin in the brain works as an enzyme involved in shaping neurons.

Other sources: Rutgers University