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Enlarged neurons are not susceptible to ‘Alzheimer’s nodes’
It appears that the largest neurons in the brains of people over the age of 80 with a sharp mind do not have ‘Alzheimer’s nodes’. These knots are made up of tangled tau proteins – one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.
The enlarged nerve cells can maintain their structure and stay healthy. So it ensures that no knots are formed. As a result, the research team concluded that tangled tau proteins cause a decrease in the size of neurons. Thus, Alzheimer’s disease involves the shrinking of neurons in the cerebral cortex and the dorsolateral cortex.
Future research should reveal why large neurons are not attacked by synaptic tau proteins and therefore do not contract.