Russia (bbabo.net) - Contrary to popular belief, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases can be caused not only by genetics or past infectious diseases. Scientists from the Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have found that one of the factors leading to these serious diseases is the appearance of amyloid fibrils, and they, in turn, accumulate in the vessels under the influence of a number of bacteria and proteins, including those that come with food.

According to the press service of the Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, amyloid fibrils can accumulate in the body for a long time and lead to the growth of plaques in the vessels, which in turn causes massive cell death and worsens the state of the body.

Previously, amyloid structures were considered concomitant diseases, but now scientists are inclined to believe that fibrils are able to participate in its formation.

Actually, the very fact that Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease most often affects the elderly is explained by scientists by the fact that with age, the human body simply does not have the strength to eliminate protein structures.

At the same time, the very treatment of patients diagnosed with, for example, Alzheimer's disease, is mainly aimed at eliminating symptoms and improving the quality of life. But the very fact that this condition is caused by specific substances makes it possible to create drugs that eliminate the cause of the disease.

According to Anna Sulaktsa, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Structural Dynamics, Stability and Folding of Proteins at the Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, many amyloid fibrils have been identified during the research; they have a similar morphology, but they have different effects on cells and their toxicity levels are also different. In addition, scientists have established that there are factors that destroy amyloids and change their pathogenicity. And this, in the future, can be used to create drugs.

Another unexpected discovery - it turned out that proteins in many familiar substances have amyloidogenic properties. For example, the fluorescent biomarker sfGFP is widely used in laboratory studies; it was found that it is capable of forming amyloid fibrils. In addition, it turned out that the seemingly harmless protein vicillin, contained in garden peas, has the same properties.

The results of the study were published in the International Journal of Molecular Science.

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