The charged form of mercury cannot diffuse across the blood brain barrier. It is estimated that the half life for mercury in the brain is approximately 27 years. Dr. Boyd Haley at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy made another discovery. The AD brain many times has tubulin which is almost totally devoid of normal ability to bind important regulatory compounds. Tubulin is a critical protein which is found in every cell.
Nerve cells contain even more than most cells.
He cannot find even minute traces of tubulin with normal binding properties in the advanced AD brain. AD brain has been studied to find out where the mercury has accumulated. It is collected in the mitochondrias well as other cell fractions. These tiny organelles are inside the nerve cells and have as their main function the production of high energy biochemical compounds used in every metabolic pathway. In nerve cell cultures mercury is an effective toxin at extremely low levels.