Scientists May Have Finally Found How Alzheimer's Actually…

Scientists May Have Finally Found How Alzheimer's Actually Kills Brain Cells For decades, scientists have known that toxic proteins build up inside neurons in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. What has remained far less clear is exactly how this buildup leads to the brain cells actually dying. A new study published in Nature Communications, from researchers at King's College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute, may have found the missing piece, a previously unknown process they call karyoptosis. When toxic proteins accumulate inside a cell, they can trigger a chain of chemical reactions that cause the cell's nucleus, which holds all of its genetic material, to gradually shrivel and eventually break apart entirely. Existing forms of cell death, like apoptosis, have never fully accounted for the extensive neuron loss seen in Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia. This newly identified process may finally help explain that gap.