NIMH · Suppressing CD33 Protein May Stem Alzheimer’s Disease Process

Too much CD33 activity appears to promote late-onset Alzheimer’s by preventing support cells from clearing out toxic plaques, key risk factors for the disease,” explained Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, a grantee of the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute on Aging (NIA). “Future medications that impede CD33 activity in the brain might help prevent or treat the disorder.”

Tanzi and colleagues report on their findings April 25, 2013 in the journal Neuron.