| Abstract/Notes |
Alzheimer's disease is practically a household word these days, as the number of individuals diagnosed with this debilitating condition continues to skyrocket. While effective treatments are in the developmental stages, many promising areas of scientific research are demonstrating that several different types of cellular pathways are involved in the death and destruction of critical brain cells. The role of a single yet powerful molecule, calcium, is now at the forefront of such research, as diverging lines of evidence point to the role of calcium in healthy and unhealthy brain cells. One class of proteins in particular, calcium-binding proteins has the powerful ability to influence the activity of calcium in brain cells. One such calcium-binding protein, apoaequorin, has been utilized by researchers for decades but more recently has been under scrutiny as a potential therapeutic in the control of calcium levels in the brain. This protein, like others in its class, represents a new direction in the race to discover more effective Alzheimer's disease prevention and treatment modalities.
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