WASHINGTON - nicotine prevents the formation of the protein clumps test tube related to Alzheimer's disease, scientists announced today at a press conference. The finding may provide a useful starting point for the development of drugs that delay or prevent the disease. The researchers are quick to warn, however, that the harmful effects of smoking - reinforced by a report Science last week linking a carcinogenic byproduct of cigarette smoke to a specific type of lung tumor - far outweigh any possible benefit from the nicotine in tobacco.
Michael Zagorski, a biochemist at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and colleagues were looking for a biochemical mechanism to explain why smokers appear to have a lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease. They found that nicotine prevents aggregation of beta-amyloid, a protein that forms harmful plaques in the brain of Alzheimer's patients. The researchers added nicotine to an amyloid beta solution, which can take many forms. They found that nicotine binds to the soluble protein and prevents it together in a form found in Alzheimer plaques. The results of the study, which was partially funded by tobacco firm Philip Morris, are published in this month Biochemistry .
The results are "fascinating," says neurobiologist Neil Buckholtz, director of Alzheimer's research at the National Institute on Aging. However, he noted, the levels of beta-amyloid and nicotine in the study are much higher than the levels in the brain. However, nicotine or related compounds could one day be used as a drug to delay or prevent Alzheimer's disease, said Ken Keller, a pharmacologist at Georgetown University Medical Center. Do not expect to nicotine to cure Alzheimer's disease, however. `` Nobody thinks nicotine is going to be a recovery drug, '' Keller said.
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