Cutting off a brain enzyme reversed Alzheimer’s plaques in mice
Nerve cell‒damaging clumps vanished, but enzyme may be key for other brain functions
VANISHING ACT Globs of a protein linked to Alzheimer’s (red) dot a brain sample from a 10-month-old mouse (left). But these disease hallmarks largely vanish in a similar mouse that mostly lacks a particular brain enzyme.
X. Hu et al/JEM 2018
Knocking back an enzyme swept mouse brains clean of protein globs that are a sign of Alzheimer’s disease.