TORONTO, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Canadian-led medical researchers have identified new proteins that might be associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease.
The protein most closely associated with the progressive and fatal brain disease is the amyloid precursor protein, or APP. Fragments of APP have been found to accumulate in the diseased brains of Alzheimer's patients.
Researchers from the University of Toronto, New York University-Orangeburg, the University of Alberta and the Toronto Western Hospital Research Institute conducted the study to identify all proteins that could potentially interact with APP.
The medical scientists used a technique called "time-controlled transcardiac perfusion cross-linking," in which a chemical perfused into mice permanently cross-links any proteins that are near APP.
The investigators then removed APP from the brains of the mice, and identified more than 30 new, potentially interacting proteins.
The researchers said their findings might help advance medicine's understanding of the role APP plays in the brain. They also said the findings might lead to strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
The research led by Gerold Schmitt-Ulms of Toronto University is reported in the journal Molecular and Cellular Proteomics.
