Nature Chem. Biol. doi:10.1038/nchembio.96 (2008)

Scientists have designed an enzyme inhibitor that seems to prevent the tangling of a brain protein that is linked with the onset of disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.

The inhibitor, named thiamet-G, acts by stopping the removal of sugar groups from specific sites on a protein called tau. It thereby blocks the attachment of phosphate groups thought to lead to the characteristic tangling.

The team, led by David Vocadlo at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, tested the enzyme inhibitor in healthy rats. They found thiamet-G to be the first such inhibitor that can be delivered to the brain through the bloodstream. Besides providing a means to investigate how tau proteins form clumps, the inhibitor may have potential as a therapeutic agent.