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Flinn Foundation

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Mar 02, 2010
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Targeting Tau in Alzheimer's

Tags: alzheimers, neuroscience, tgen

[Source: Genome Technology] - Alzheimer's disease is notoriously difficult to treat, and there's no cure on the horizon. Researchers,?though, have deciphered specific proteins involved in a pathway that plays a role in the disease, and they think those proteins could offer new drug targets that may slow down, or even halt, the progression of Alzheimer's.

Using siRNA to do a whole kinome screen, researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix identified three proteins that lead to the disintegration of neural connections. They are now working on identifying compounds that target those proteins and then testing them in mouse models. "I think we found some strong candidates for drug targets," says Travis Dunckley, an associate investigator in the neurodegenerative unit of TGen and senior author of the study, which was published in BMC Genomics.

For more information: Targeting Tau in Alzheimer's