Cholesterol tremendously increases the toxicity of a peptide implicated in Alzheimer’s progression, according to research by scientists in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The study, “Lipids uniquely alter the secondary structure and toxicity of amyloid beta 1-42 aggregates,” by Dmitry Kurouski, Ph.D., and research assistants Kiryl Zhaliazka and Mikhail Matyeyenka, was supported by a $1.5 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health. It was published in FEBS Journal — the journal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies.
“The study found that certain lipids can increase the toxicity of amyloid beta peptides, which are thought to play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Kurouski, an assistant professor and primary investigator for the study, Bryan-College Station. “Specifically, we discovered that the interaction between amyloid beta and lipids can cause the formation of small, toxic clusters called oligomers.”
Health Secrets of a SuperAger 
So how do we reduce this? Do statins help?
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I’m not a doctor, but it seems that keeping out cholesterol level on the low end of the range would help. I took care of my aunt who had Alzheimer’s and I remember that she had very high cholesterol levels, above 300 long before she got the disease.
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A good reason to stay on my statin.
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