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Article: Collagen VI may help protect the brain against Alzheimer's disease.(Report)
- Article from:
- Drug Week
- Article date:
- January 23, 2009
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January 5, 2008 u Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND), UCSF, and Stanford have discovered that a certain type of collagen, collagen VI, protects brain cells against amyloid-beta (A?) proteins, which are widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the functions of collagens in cartilage and muscle are well established, before this study it was unknown that collagen VI is made by neurons in the brain and that it can fulfill important neuroprotective functions (see also Gladstone Institutes).
The team of investigators led by GIND director Lennart Mucke, MD, reported in the current edition of the journal Nature ...