MIT Researchers Find Potential Tool for Alzheimer's Therapy

The brain is like yeast. Well, sort of, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose research may lead to treatments for two dreaded neurological disorders, Parkinson's Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease.

Morgan H. Sheng, Menicon Professor of Neuroscience and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator were working with nerve cells from the hippocampus, studying how those cells branch into dendrites, which are the essential connectors between nerve cells. The hippocampus is known to be a mediator of memory, helping with spatial orientation and recall of familiar places.

Sheng and his group applied a common protein, Septin seven (Sep7) to their hippocampal culture, and found that in the presence of Sep7 the neurons branched into dendrites and spines, common structures that create the all-important synapses between nerve cells for transmission of information. Their research found that in an abundance of Sep7 the neurons built many well-formed dendrites and spines, while when too little was present, the dendrites were small and malformed.

Sep7 is also required for yeast to bud and divide, and is required for the for the formation of the long neck between mother and daughter cells that forms just before the cell splits into two separate cells. That function for Sep7 has been known in yeast since the 1970s.

While neurons do not divide in an adult brain, they continue to form new dendrites and spines throughout a person's life, unless some disorder prevents that. Without new dendrites and spines, new synapses cannot be formed between neurons, and it is theorized that prevents the formation of new memories. When the synapses are damaged, memory is damaged. With this breakthrough, scientists are hopeful to find therapies for neurological disorders in which the synapses of neurons are damaged or missing.