A new mechanism for neurodegeneration in a form of dementia

A new study reports that dementia-related and psychiatric-related proteins cluster together to form aggregates in the brain, leading to abnormal cell function and behavior. Aggregation of the protein TDP-43 is a hallmark of a pathological process that leads to dementia called frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). The study showed that as TDP-43 accumulates in the brain of patients with FTLD, it ropes in DISC1, an important protein in the pathology of many mental conditions.