21/28 December 2019 | New Scientist | 27
What else have you been working on?
We have been researching the link between
gingipains and a protein called ApoE,
which helps maintain neural synapses
and controls immune responses in the
brain. People with one variant of it, ApoE4,
are much more likely to get Alzheimer’s
than people with ApoE3, while a recent
analysis suggests people with ApoE2
have an exceptionally low risk of
getting Alzheimer’s.
P. gingivalis makes two gingipains, and
one cuts proteins up only at a particular
amino acid, arginine. ApoE4 has two
arginines, ApoE3 has only one and ApoE2
has no arginine at all. So it seems people
who make ApoE with more arginines are
much more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
We have confirmed experimentally that
the more arginines ApoE has, the more
susceptible it is to gingipains.
COR388 blocks that, and people who
received it in early trials of the drug
in 2018 had significant reductions in
ApoE fragments in their cerebrospinal
fluid, as well as some improvements
in symptoms.
Would an anti-gingipain drug help treat
gum disease too?
We hope so. In some people in the clinical
trial, we will be looking at gum disease
as well as dementia. Because medicine
and dentistry have been separate
professions, the mouth is often treated
as separate from the body, but, of course,
it is not. In 2020, we hope to publish work
showing that anti-gingipain drugs also
treat gum disease in animals – and
whether targeting P. gingivalis in the
mouth lowers it in the brain. ❚
Debora MacKenzie is a
New Scientist consultant
based in Geneva, Switzerland
2019 through a lens
A psychedelic
turtle embryo
Photographer Teresa
Zgoda and Teresa Kugler
Agency Nikon Small
World
Hundreds of images were
stitched together to make
this mesmeric picture of
a turtle embryo.
Teresa Zgoda and
Teresa Kugler coloured the
inner layers of the embryo
using fluorescent dyes.
It is only 2.5 centimetres
long and thick, but
because the pair’s
microscope could only
focus on a very small
area, they had to combine
numerous photos to get
this final picture.
This image won the
2019 Nikon Small World
photomicrography
competition in October.
03
02
Head transplants
Surgeon Sergio Canavero spent much
of this decade claiming he was ready
to perform a human head transplant,
replacing a recipient’s body with one
from a donor, and had lined up willing
patients. He was heavily criticised by
bioethicists, and most experts doubt
the procedure is possible.
Faster-than-light neutrinos
It would have been the find of the
decade. In 2011, researchers claimed
to have caught ghostly particles called
neutrinos breaking the speed limit
of the universe. Sadly, the reality
was more mundane: a loose cable
and other issues had caused a
measurement error.
