May 1 : A new study has found that Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, the human version of mad cow disease, and other degenerative diseases are closely related at the molecular level.

The research may help scientists in developing tools for diagnosing such diseases, and for their potential treatment through ’structure-based drug design’.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers including David Eisenberg at the University of California, Los Angeles.

As part of the study, researchers examined proteins associated with human diseases using X-ray analysis and a sophisticated computer algorithm.

The researchers studied the harmful rope-like structures known as amyloid fibrils which are linked protein molecules that form in the brain. The fibrils contain a stack of watertight ‘molecular zippers’.

The study found that amyloid fibril were formed by the proteins almost every time when the computer indicated.

“With each disease, a different protein transforms into amyloid fibrils, but all of these diseases are similar at the molecular level,” Nature magazine quoted Eisenberg, as saying.

The findings of the research were published in an advanced online publication of Nature. (ANI)