Research report 2009 - Max Planck Research Unit for Enzymology of Protein Folding
Pathogenic amyloid plaques in Alzheimer´s disease
Authors
Fändrich, Marcus
Departments
Amyloidfibrillen (Dr. habil. Marcus Fändrich)
MPF für Enzymologie der Proteinfaltung, Halle/Saale
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in Germany. While the exact mechanisms that lead to this disease are still not finally understood, it has been shown that the brain of Alzheimer patients contain characteristic depositions of so-called amyloid plaques. These plaques consist, in their core, of fibrillar aggregates of the peptide Aβ. The research group of Marcus Fändrich has investigated how such plaques may form.