Brussels & Leuven, Belgium – As the most common form of dementia in the Western world, Alzheimer's disease carries enormous implications for our ageing society. It is generally accepted that the disease is caused by Alzheimer peptide (A -peptide) protofibrils. Until now, the conditions under which this type of protofibril is formed and leads to the disease remained unknown.

A recently published research article in the “Journal of Proteome Research”, authored by researchers from the Nestlé Reserarch Center, Genomatix Software GmbH, Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC, CXR Biosciences Ltd, the Cancer Research UK Molecular Pharmacology Unit demonstrates the synergisms and enhanced analytic power of the combination of thorough metabolic profiling with the unique and proprietary microarray analysis methods of Genomatix Software GmbH.

The “lipid flip” may sound like a rock and roll dance craze from the 1960s. However, it actually is a key biochemical process in which fatty materials termed lipids move into cells — movements that are pointing toward improvements in gene therapy, new medications for preventing the complications of Alzheimer’s disease, and other health boons.

The ability of the body's cells to correctly receive and convey signals is crucial to good health.

The lipid measure apolipoprotein (apo) B: apo A-I ratio is not a better predictor of coronary heart disease risk than traditional lipid ratios that include total cholesterol and HDL-C, according to a study in the August 15 issue of JAMA.