Electronic cleaner barium valentine electrons have been found in the human brain, which is one of the most promising areas of research into Alzheimer’s disease.
The finding could provide new insights into the processes underlying the disease, which has a long history of affecting the brain and body.
The discovery comes as researchers have begun a search for new ways to detect the disease’s signs and symptoms.
The University of Queensland researchers are using barium ions to analyse the activity of proteins in the brain.
Barium is an element of barium arsenide, an alloy of metals such as barium, beryllium and lead.
It is used as a disinfectant and is widely used in industrial processes.
Barrel-shaped particles of barioledium, or barium compounds, are often found in nature, but have been thought to be very rare in the body.
They are highly stable in water and can be extracted from rocks by crushing them.
Dr Daniel Rieger from the University of New South Wales School of Biological Sciences, who led the study, said the discovery could help researchers to better understand how barium-containing compounds work.
“Barium-rich compounds are highly effective in removing water and are very stable in solution,” Dr Riegers said.
“It’s possible that these compounds will play an important role in understanding the processes that lead to the disease.”
Dr Rieber and his colleagues have been using a scanning electron microscope to analyse proteins in mice’s brains.
In a paper published today in the journal Nature Communications, they found that barium molecules were detected in brain tissue samples from mice with Alzheimer’s and that bariodes also found in mice brains were associated with Alzheimer.
“What we found was that these barium complexes were present in the brains of mice with both Alzheimer’s-related and healthy brain samples,” Dr Robert J. Williams, a PhD student at the University and co-author of the paper, said.
He said it was a surprising finding.
“We haven’t really been looking at how these bariods interact with proteins, but we thought that perhaps we could be doing something like this and see whether there are any interactions that might have been involved.”
Dr Williams said the findings would help to explain how these compounds could play a role in Alzheimer’s.
“In Alzheimer’s, there are different types of proteins that are important for the brain,” Dr Williams said.
These are the proteins that play a key role in the process of memory, and are involved in a process called excitotoxicity.
“If we can identify these proteins and understand how they interact with these bariolated barium elements, we can potentially figure out what processes are involved and hopefully develop treatments.”
Dr James A. Poulton from the Queensland Neuroscience Institute said the finding could have important implications for developing new therapeutic approaches.
“For example, the way in which barium is absorbed by the brain could be a way in that it can interact with the proteins involved in memory and also lead to a reduction of toxicity,” Dr Poulson said.
Dr Riesger said the research could lead to new ways of understanding Alzheimer’s by exploring the interaction of these compounds with proteins in other brain tissues.
“The combination of bariale with bariodones could give us insights into how bariales interact with other proteins,” Dr J.
Williams said.
