Mitochondria and Alzheimer's: Is PTCD1 the Smoking Gun?

Multiple features distinguish the mitochondria of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients from those of unaffected individuals. The causes and consequences of these differences are informed by the recent finding by Fleck et al. (J. Neurosci., 2019) that pentatricopeptide repeat-containing protein 1 (PTCD1) gene variants associate with AD. This suggests a proximal or initiating role for mitochondria in AD.