Transport breakdown in brain cells may lead to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's.

ISLAMABAD -- After studying the process in mice and flies, scientists suggest that failure to transport the molecular machines that break down proteins in cells could lie at the heart of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The ability to take apart proteins that are damaged, the wrong shape, or surplus to requirements is a crucial function in living cells.

This process occurs at specific locations within the cell. Some of these locations can be more than 1 meter from the cell body in neurons, or nerve cells because they lie along their axons, which are long thin fibres that link them to other neurons. Cells use complex molecular machines called proteasomes to break down proteins at their specific sites of activity. One of the hallmarks of neurodegenerative...