Structural Studies of Amyloid

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of amyloid plaques within the brain. The core of these plaques has been shown to be composed primarily of a single kind of molecule, the  ß amyloid protein. Surrounding the core is a region that contains dead and dying brain cells; the death of these cells is the cause of the progressive loss of brain function that occurs as the disease develops. It has been suggested that the amyloid plaques themselves cause the brain cells around them to die and so are the underlying cause of AD, although it is certainly possible that their formation is simply a by-product of the disease. There is a large amount of circumstantial evidence supporting the idea that the amyloid plaques are to blame. Our experiments are designed to examine what the  ß amyloid protein molecules look like when they are packed up against each other in the plaque. We believe that this information could then be used to design agents which can bind to the plaques (and serve as an early diagnostic) and to design drugs that would bind to the ß amyloid molecules before they form a plaque, blocking plaque formation and so preventing AD.