Amyloid-beta peptide behind Alzheimer - for the first time hydrogen bonds were analysed

Using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, researchers at Luleå University of Technology in collaboration with Warwick University in the UK for the first time in the world managed to analyse hydrogen bonds in tiny fibrils of Amyloid-beta peptide, which probably causes Alzheimer’s disease. Thanks to these new results, there is a successful method avaliable – for analysis of structure of Amyloid-beta peptides in their most toxic form, that is, when they are most dangerous for the brain neurons.

- This is a very important step in research on Alzheimer’s disease at a molecular level, says Oleg N. Antzutkin, professor in chemistry of interfaces, at Luleå University of Technology.

Until a few years ago scientists believed that amyloid plaques in the brain directly cause Alzheimer’s disease. This is because very large amounts of plaques in the brain of Alzheimer´s patients are usually found. Since the activity of our brain is greatest in the regions responsible for short-term memory, there most of the amyloid plaques were found. Here is also usually where Alzheimer’s disease is first noticed, in the form of reduced short-term memory. However, it seems to be that Amyloid plaque are rather a residual of something worse.