{"id":449828,"date":"2026-02-02T21:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449828\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:08:08","slug":"some-cancerous-tumors-pump-out-a-protein-that-seems-to-destroy-alzheimers-plaques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449828\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Cancerous Tumors Pump Out a Protein That Seems to Destroy Alzheimer’s Plaques"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" <\/a>Image in public domain.<\/p>\n

Cancer and Alzheimer\u2019s are two of the most dreaded diseases, but they don\u2019t seem to strike the same person too often. In a dark twist of fate, researchers say there could be a good reason for that.<\/p>\n

After a 15-year investigative odyssey, a study published in Cell has finally found the molecular messenger behind this mystery. It turns out that peripheral cancers (tumors in the lungs, prostate, or colon) pump out a protein that travels to the brain, recruits the immune system<\/a>, and systematically dismantles the toxic plaques of Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Destroying Plaques<\/p>\n

A 2020 meta-analysis<\/a> (study of studies) of 9.6 million people found that cancer survivors have an 11% decreased incidence of Alzheimer\u2019s. It\u2019s not huge, but it\u2019s enough to suggest something\u2019s up.<\/p>\n

Ever since, a research team led by neurologist Youming Lu at Huazhong University of Science and Technology tried to see why this is happening. <\/p>\n

We still don\u2019t know exactly what triggers Alzheimer\u2019s, but we do know that a protein called \u201camyloid beta\u201d plays a key role in the disease. In a healthy brain, these proteins are cleared out regularly. However, in an Alzheimer\u2019s brain, they clump together into \u201cplaques\u201d. These plaques block communication between neurons, eventually killing the cells.<\/p>\n

They conducted a mouse study<\/a>, transplanting human lung, prostate, and colon tumors into mice bred to develop Alzheimer\u2019s. They noticed that the cancer-bearing mice didn\u2019t develop the expected brain plaques. But why?<\/p>\n

Protein Wars<\/p>\n

The team narrowed the cause down to a protein Cyst-C. When a tumor grows, it leaks this protein into the blood. In the mice, Cyst-C traveled to the brain and found its way inside. Once there, it docked onto a receptor on the microglia called TREM2.<\/p>\n

Microglia are the brain\u2019s resident immune cells, the \u201cjanitors\u201d of the brain. These cells have been shown to be able<\/a> to clear out Alzheimer\u2019s plaques, but they don\u2019t always do so<\/a>. However, when the Cyst-C reaches the microglia, it turbocharges them. They start aggressively devouring the amyloid plaques. And, intriguingly, they don\u2019t just stop new ones from forming, they also break down the ones that are already there.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a spectacular mechanism \u2014 but there\u2019s a catch.<\/p>\n

The brain is the most protected organ in the body, wrapped in a tight mesh of cells that prevents almost everything from leaking into the gray matter. That\u2019s part of the reason why it\u2019s so hard to treat brain conditions, because it\u2019s hard to get treatments past this barrier. Dr. Donald Weaver, a top neurologist in Toronto, compared<\/a> Cyst-C to \u201ctrying to drive a bus across the blood-brain barrier.\u201d It\u2019s a large molecule. It shouldn\u2019t be able to get in.<\/p>\n

However, Dr. Lu\u2019s research points to a tragic irony. In the early stages of Alzheimer\u2019s, the blood-brain barrier actually starts to \u201cleak\u201d. It could be exactly this early damage caused by early Alzheimer\u2019s that allows the cancer protein to enter and, surprisingly, save the brain.<\/p>\n

Can We Use This?<\/p>\n

Of course, this doesn\u2019t make cancer a good thing. Rather, it\u2019s distinctly ironic. But this pathway is intriguing, and researchers suspect that we could use these mechanisms and hijack them for good; turbocharge the microglia without the cancer.<\/p>\n

Currently, most Alzheimer\u2019s drugs<\/a> are \u201cinhibitors\u201d \u2014 they try to stop something from happening. But activating a protein like TREM2 is significantly harder. This study provides a natural blueprint for an \u201cactivator\u201d drug.<\/p>\n

The hunt is now on to turn this \u201ctumor signal\u201d into a shelf-stable, safe, and effective injection. It\u2019s a long road, but for the first time, we have a map that explains why the \u201cmedical ghost story\u201d could have been true all along.<\/p>\n

The study was published<\/a> in Cell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image in public domain. Cancer and Alzheimer\u2019s are two of the most dreaded diseases, but they don\u2019t seem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[7277,49,48,3877,84,50786,8916],"class_list":{"0":"post-449828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alzheimers-disease","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cancer-research","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-microglia","14":"tag-neurology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}