PLAyground in Alzheimer's

A survey of brain lipids revealing abnormal patterns in mice with Alzheimer's disease haspointed researchers from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and Harvard Medical School to a potentiallynew therapeutic target forAD-an isoform of phospholipase A₂.¹ Several companies are already pursuing other variants of the phospholipase in cardiovascular and inflammatory disease. However, doubts about the proposed mechanism of thisphospholipase A₂ isoform mean that further experiments will be needed before the target can be handed off to industry.

The work, published in Nature Neuroscience, was from a team led by Lennart Mucke, senior investigator and director of the Gladstone Institute. The AD-associated phospholipase A₂ (PLA₂) isoform identified by the group is phospholipase A₂, group IVA (cytosolic, calcium-dependent) (PLA₂G4A)...