A team of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC has unlocked the details of a cellular pathway that triggers cellular inflammation and aging and is linked to Alzheimer’s disease, particularly among those who carry the APOE4 genetic risk. They have also found a way to return cells to a healthy state, revealing a new potential approach to treatment. The study, the culmination of a decade of research on a protein known as ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), was just published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration.
Past research found that a shortage of HDL cholesterol (or “good cholesterol) in the brain raises a person’s risk for Alzheimer’s disease. That risk is related to problems with ABCA1, which produces HDL when working properly. But fixing those problems requires…