A protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease progression has been linked to normal brain ageing, raising the prospect that researchers could target it to stave off age-related mental decline.

The amyloid-β precursor protein (APP) helps to form links between the brain’s neurons. It has been highly studied because its breakdown creates amyloid-β peptides, which are often present in plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.


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Now, Dario Valenzano, an evolutionary biologist at the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena, Germany, and his colleagues have found that knocking out the appa gene, which makes APP, in turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) reduces signs of ageing.

“We found that there is probably an overlooked role of amyloid precursor protein in normal brain ageing,” says Valenzano. The work has not yet been peer reviewed and is posted on the bioRxiv preprint server1.