| STUDY |
The experimental drug improves memory and reduces brain pathology in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer s disease. As the disease develops in humans and in the team s transgenic mice, amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein accumulate in the brain; levels of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine also decline. Drug mimics the missing neurotransmitter. When the drug binds to acetylcholine binding sites known as M1 muscarinic receptors in the transgenic mice, levels of á-secretase increase. This enzyme limits production of amyloid-â and therefore prevents the development of both plaques and tangles. Author says drug is the first treatment that reduces levels of both of these pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer s
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