Brain Cholesterol Associated With Increased Risk of Alzheimer's Disease

A study published in Nature Chemistry found cholesterol in the brain triggers amyloid-beta molecule aggregation, which plays a central role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers determined cholesterol accelerates amyloid-beta clustering by a factor of 20. "The question for us now is not how to eliminate cholesterol from the brain, but about how to control cholesterol's role in Alzheimer's disease through the regulation of its interaction with amyloid-beta," says University of Cambridge Professor Michele Vendruscolo. "We're not saying that cholesterol is the only trigger for the aggregation process, but it's certainly one of them." Vendruscolo suggests targeting the newly-identified association between amyloid-beta and cholesterol could make it possible to design drugs that maintain cholesterol homeostasis, and consequently amyloid-beta homeostasis, in the brain. "This work has helped us narrow down a specific question in the field of Alzheimer's research," he says. "We now need to understand in more detail how the balance of cholesterol is maintained in the brain in order to find ways to inactivate a trigger of amyloid-beta aggregation."