Mathematics may offer a new way to investigate the complex chemistry behind Alzheimer’s-related plaque formation.

Plaques associated with Alzheimer’s disease begin with molecular interactions that are difficult to observe directly as they unfold. Shantia Yarahmadian, an associate professor at Mississippi State University, is using mathematics to simulate part of that process, focusing on how metals such as copper and zinc may influence the behavior of amyloid-beta proteins.

His latest model follows a chain of reactions that can lead amyloid-beta to aggregate, or clump together, and form plaque. It also allows researchers to test how two potential therapeutic approaches might interfere with those reactions. The work was published in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology and extends Yarahmadian’s earlier efforts to model Alzheimer’s disease mathematically.