A new paper published in the journal Nature has shed light on the proteins linked to dementia-related issues.

The study was a collaboration with UCL and research groups at the Francis Crick Institute, UK Dementia Research Institute, St George’s University of London, Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and the University of Trento, Italy.

The protein in question is tau which is involved in the deterioration of brain function.

Researchers have known that tau was involved in neurodegeneration for some time, yet they didn’t understand how tau protein production was controlled.

In the breakthrough study, Professor Rohan de Silva (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) explains

“…we may have found the key to regulating the production of a whole range of proteins involved in brain function and the development of these devastating conditions.”

De Silva and his team discovered that ‘antisense long non-coding RNA’ (lncRNA) a noncoding gene helps regulate, fine-tune and repress the production of tau in the brain’s nerve cells.

This is important because an excess of tau can result in the tau turning into a toxic byproduct. 

Professor David Dexter, Associate Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK, said:

“This important research provides fantastic new insights into how tau production is controlled inside brain cells, and presents an exciting new opportunity for developing therapies that target this. It’s especially exciting to see that similar mechanisms may be involved in controlling the production of many other key proteins implicated in other neurological conditions, as it suggests strategies targeting these mechanisms could be effective across many conditions.”

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