New Clues to ALS and Alzheimer's Disease From Physics

Researchers suggest that phase transition, which allows neurons to constantly restructure their inner machinery, appears to malfunction, with implications for Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), reports National Public Radio . The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's J. Paul Taylor said this glitch causes the neuron's interior to become too viscous, and appears to allow toxins to accrue. Taylor previously discovered gene mutations that induced abnormal phase transitions in cells of people suffering from symptoms associated with both dementia and ALS, as well as indications of similar mutations in other neurodegenerative disorders. Fellow Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Clifford Brangwynne said experimental drugs and genetic modifications performed in laboratories have been used to disentangle these molecules, and this could lead to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. "It's very clear that this principle is at play in many, many diseases," Brangwynne noted.