Untangling the Brain: Enzyme counters Alzheimer’s-like snarls

An enzyme prevents brain cells in aging mice from developing knots of proteins resembling those that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists report. Known as Pin1, the enzyme could form the basis of new treatments for the memory-stealing disorder.

In 1995, Kun Ping Lu of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and Tony Hunter of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif.,