{"id":232752,"date":"2026-03-07T06:07:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/tubulin-prevents-toxic-protein-clumps-in-the-brain-fighting-back-against-neurodegeneration"},"modified":"2026-03-07T06:07:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:07:50","slug":"tubulin-prevents-toxic-protein-clumps-in-the-brain-fighting-back-against-neurodegeneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/tubulin-prevents-toxic-protein-clumps-in-the-brain-fighting-back-against-neurodegeneration","title":{"rendered":"Tubulin prevents toxic protein clumps in the brain, fighting back against neurodegeneration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/tubulin-prevents-toxic-protein-clumps-in-the-brain-fighting-back-against-neurodegeneration2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a potential new strategy to fight back against Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s diseases, conditions that are linked to the toxic accumulation of Tau and alpha synuclein protein clumps in the brain. The team reports in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-69618-3\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Nature Communications<\/i><\/a> that tubulin, the building block of microtubules, the cell\u2019s internal \u2018railway tracks, can stop Tau and alpha synuclein from forming toxic clumps and instead steer them into their normal, healthy roles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTau and alpha synuclein are well known for their roles in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s. In these conditions, these proteins can misfold, stick together and form harmful aggregates that damage neurons and contribute to memory loss, movement problems and other symptoms,\u201d said first author Dr. Lathan Lucas, postdoctoral associate of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology in Dr. Allan Ferreon\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Tau and alpha synuclein also fulfill essential functions in healthy neurons\u2014they help maintain cell structure and support communication by interacting with tubulin and contributing to microtubule assembly and stabilization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a potential new strategy to fight back against Alzheimer\u2019s and Parkinson\u2019s diseases, conditions that are linked to the toxic accumulation of Tau and alpha synuclein protein clumps in the brain. The team reports in Nature Communications that tubulin, the building block of microtubules, the cell\u2019s internal \u2018railway [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}