Israeli researchers have discovered that the amount of a specific protein is severely reduced in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease caused by brain cell death. Currently there is no cure, but according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), we now know what may trigger it. Dr. Debbie Toiber, of the BGU Department of Life Sciences, and her team discovered that a specific protein—Sirtuin-6—is severely reduced in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
SIRT6 is critical to the repair of DNA, the deterioration of which “is the beginning of the chain that ends in neurodegenerative diseases in seniors,” she explains. She discovered that as a person ages, the amount of the SIRT6 protein in the brain declines. In fact, according to Dr. Toiber, “In Alzheimer’s patients, it is almost completely gone.”
Dr. Toiber is currently working on finding a way to increase the expression of the protein into the brain.
Dr. Toiber acknowledges that healthy habits like good diet and exercise might make a difference in our DNA health. She points out that engaging in sports and even working past retirement can challenge the body in positive ways, preparing your cells to react more readily and thus be more likely able to repair themselves.
She concludes, “We should be focusing our research on how to maintain production of SIRT6 and improve the repair capacity of the DNA damage that leads to neurodegenerative diseases,” according to Arutz-7.
“Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with fruit.” Isa 27:6 {eoa}
This article originally appeared at visionforisrael.com.
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