Brain fat linked to Alzheimer's.

A new understanding of Alzheimer's disease suggests that the root cause involves a build-up of fat droplets in brain cells. This finding challenges the prevailing belief that the disease is caused by the aggregation of proteins. The study focused on a gene called APOE, which is the biggest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's. The researchers found that people with a certain variant of this gene had higher levels of an enzyme that boosted fat droplets in their brain cells. This accumulation of fat then leads to the build-up of another protein called tau, causing cell death and memory loss. This discovery opens up a new avenue for therapeutic development for Alzheimer's disease. [Extracted from the article]