What is extracellular aggregates?

The word extracellular means "outside the cell". Extracellular aggregates, or “amyloids,” refer to damaged proteins that bind up the outside of our cells, interfering with their normal function. The most well-known extracellular aggregate is beta-amyloid, which is a key contributor to Alzheimer’s disease.

How does the damage set in?

Proteins are routinely damaged in the rough-and-tumble of metabolism. Normally such proteins are simply rendered dysfunctional and are broken down for recycling. But some proteins suffer damage that warps their shape and makes them ‘sticky.’ Such proteins then tend to link up with one another, forming large chains that accumulate outside of our cells, preventing them from functioning properly.

Resultant Disease

Extracellular aggregates form on a wide range of different kinds of cell, and cause diseases related to the inability of those cells to carry out their work. Amyloids in the brain are a core driver of Alzheimer’s disease; amyloids in the heart interfere with the pumping ability of many older people’s hearts; amyloids in the insulin-producing beta-cells of the pancreas contribute to diabetes.

Solution

A promising approach to the removal of this junk is a kind of vaccination, to stimulate the cells of the immune system to clear out the material. This strategy has already shown promising preliminary results in clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease, and further experiments suggest it could work with many other extracellular aggregates.