Study reveals sex-specific molecular mechanism leading to accelerated cognitive deterioration in females.
A molecular mechanism that leads to accelerated cognitive deterioration in females with Alzheimer’s disease was described for the first time by neuroscience researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia, disproportionately affects women, in whom the disease progresses faster than in men. What’s more, current therapeutic drugs to delay symptom progression cause more severe side effects in women.
The study, led by brain gene expert Prof. Hermona Soreq and Prof. Yonatan Loewenstein, discovered a direct link between a family of mitochondrial-originated RNA fragments and the rate of dementia progression in women.