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When someone has dementia, including Huntington’s disease, the brain’s ability to clear toxic proteins is impaired.
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The researchers from the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge in England identified that autophagy did not correctly work in mice with dementia, including Huntington’s disease.
Autophagy, meaning self-eating, is the process of cells eating unwanted material, breaking it down, and discarding it.
Some forms of neurodegenerative diseases result in a buildup of toxic proteins in the brain. These include misfolded huntingtin proteins in Huntington’s disease and tau tangles in Alzheimer’s disease.
This can lead to the degradation and death of brain cells.
As toxic protein buildup continues and causes irreversible brain damage, their activity increases and the buildup rate increases.
Specific immune cells in the brain, called microglia, typically help to protect against the toxic buildup. However, in many neurodegenerative diseases, these cells are activated and instead can impair the process of autophagy.
For the study, the scientists bred some of the mice to stop the impairment and allow autophagy to occur. This protected these mice from a buildup of toxic proteins.
Then, the research team administered maraviroc to mice with Huntington’s disease for four weeks, starting when the mice were 2 months…
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