Steering an enzyme’s ‘scissors’ shows potential for stopping Alzheimer’s disease How one amino acid can spell the difference between a healthy aging brain and early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: Brian Kladko and Weihong Song/University of British Columbia Scientists had previously identified a couple of crucial steps in the formation of a protein called amyloid beta, which accumulates in clumps, or …

  How one amino acid can spell difference between a healthy aging brain and early onset Alzheimer’s disease.Scientists had previously identified a couple of crucial steps in the formation of a protein called amyloid beta, which accumulates in clumps, or “plaques,” in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Those discoveries inspired efforts at disrupting the biochemical carving of amyloid …