Reelin Protein Shows Promise in Protecting Against Alzheimer’s 

Reelin Protein Shows Promise in Protecting Against Alzheimer’s. Credit | Shutterstock
Reelin Protein Shows Promise in Protecting Against Alzheimer’s. Credit | Shutterstock

United States: A key brain protein called Reelin, which helps build the brain early in life, may also protect against Alzheimer’s and other aging-related diseases. 

Recent studies show that Reelin supports thinking and memory in older brains, though the exact details are unclear. When Reelin levels drop, neurons become more vulnerable. Li-Huei Tsai from MIT notes that Reelin appears to be a crucial protective factor for brain health

Research Drives Development of Reelin-Boosting Treatments 

As reported in npr, the research has inspired the hard work to develop a medicine that boosts Reelin or helps it to work better us as a way to stave off cognitive decline. 

“I think we’re on to something important for Alzheimer’s,” Tsai says. 

Reelin Protein Shows Promise in Protecting Against Alzheimer’s. Credit | Shutterstock
Reelin Protein Shows Promise in Protecting Against Alzheimer’s. Credit | Shutterstock

“You don’t have to be a genius to be like, ‘More Reelin, that’s the solution,’” says Dr. Joseph Arboleda-Velasquez of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Eye and Ear. “And now we have the tools to do that.” 

Colombian Study Highlights Reelin’s Role 

Reeling almost became something of a scientific celebrity in 2023 and thanks to a study of a Colombian man who should have developed Alzheimer’s in the middle age but didn’t. 

As reported by npr, the man who worked as a mechanic was a part of a large family that carries a very hard to find gene variant which is known as Paisa and a reference to the area around Medellín where it was discovered and also the family members who inherit this particular variant are all but certain to develop Alzheimer’s middle age. 

They have started it with cognitive decline in their 40s and they develop full-blown dementia and late 40s and early 50s,” Arboleda-Valasquez says. 

But this man despite having the variant remained cognitively intact into his late 60s and wasn’t diagnosed with dementia until he was in his 70s. 

After he died at 74, an autopsy revealed that the man’s brain was riddled with sticky amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. 

Scientists also found another sign of Alzheimer’s — tangled fibres called tau, which can impair neurons. But oddly, these tangles were mostly absent in a brain area called the entorhinal cortex, which is involved in memory.