There is some evidence linking TL to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease . Brain structural problems, telomere changes, neurological complaints, and mental health issues are all rather prevalent . Telomeres are protein-sequence complexes that stop chromosomal fusion and the loss of coding DNA caused by inadequate replication of linear DNA . Specialised non-coding DNA repeats make up telomeres . Because of issues with end-replication, telomeres-the "protective caps" of chromosomes-shorten with each cell cycle . Many age-related disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, are linked to this process, which is known as telomere attrition . Telomere attrition can be caused by clinical conditions; however, short telomeres can initiate pathological processes by elevating oxidative stress and inflammation , and increased risk of dementia is associated with longer telomeres . The role of telomerase and TERT in protecting the developing brain . When it comes to neurodegenerative illnesses like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, TERT offers both protective and therapeutic effects . Telomerase synthesises head-to-tail short tandem repeats, which make up the telomeric sequences of the majority of eukaryotic organisms . In order to preserve and extend the length of human telomeres, which are the ends of linear chromosomes, telomerase uses the protein subunit telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) and the RNA component TERC . By catalysing RT (TERT), telomerase adds nucleotides to the ends of chromosomes using intrinsic RNA molecules (TER) as templates .