Amyloids & Others

The understanding of the mechanisms underlying neurological disease is increasingly growing by the increased insight of how protein interaction can lead to the formation of unique complexes. One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease is the accumulation of amyloid plaques between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. Amyloid-beta is a protein fragment that is snipped from an amyloid precursor protein (APP). In a healthy brain these protein fragments are broken down and eliminated. In Alzheimer's disease the fragments accumulate to form hard, insoluble plaques. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) occurs when prion protein start folding into abnormal three dimensional shapes which replicate by converting their properly folded counterparts and form aggregates. A neurological disease with partial Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms is idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH), which can be differentially diagnosed by measuring leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (LRG). IBL International offers the most comprehensive product portfolio around the APP-cascade.