Image of a C. elegans roundworm.

The blue fluorescence highlights the tissue producing most N-acetylglucosamine.

© MPI for the Biology of Ageing

Image of a C. elegans roundworm.

The blue fluorescence highlights the tissue producing most N-acetylglucosamine.

“ Although we cannot measure dementia in worms “, explains Martin Denzel of the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, “ we can observe proteins that we also know from human diseases like Alzheimer ’s to be toxic by measuring effects on neuromuscular function.

This gives us insight into how Alzheimer actually progresses on the molecular level“.

Now, the scientists Martin Denzel, Nadia Storm, and Max Planck Director Adam Antebi have discovered that a substance called N-acetylglucosamine apparently stimulates the body’s own defense mechanism against such toxicity.