Dementia comes in different forms but a common feature is the build-up in the brain of clusters of abnormal proteins which leads to the eventual death of brain cells.
One of the ways our body rids itself of these toxic proteins is through autophagy, or ‘self-eating’, where cells eat the toxic material, break it down and discard it.
In diseases such as dementia, autophagy doesn’t work, meaning the brain can’t get rid of the toxic proteins, so they accumulate and destroy brain cells and connections.
