Rare genetic mutation protects against Alzheimer's

[roadmaster]

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/0...ers/?hpt=hp_t2


An important breakthrough for the research field comes in the journal Nature this week. Researchers say they found a rare genetic mutation in Iceland that appears to protect against Alzheimer's disease.

I hope they keep researching and find a way to stop or slow down this disease.

[MMC]

Yes this would be a good find. Also they do say those trying to learn another language helps lessen some if it. There is nothing worse to see one whom somebody luvs and not be able to be recognized by them.

Even when my Mother passed from Cancer. Being on all the pain meds and not being able to talk or move really did bother me. That my Moms was not able to express herself at the end. Not be able to tell me what she wanted. Really got to me.

[waltky]

Helps clear and prevent brain deposits in mice...

Protein injection hope for Alzheimer's
Tue, 19 Apr 2016 - Scientists believe injections of a natural protein could lessen the symptoms and progress of dementia after promising early trials in mice.

The treatment - IL 33 - appeared to improve memory and help clear and prevent brain deposits similar to those seen in people with Alzheimer's. Tentative human studies of the treatment will soon begin, but experts say it will take many years to know if it could help patients in real life. The work is published in PNAS journal. Interleukin 33, or IL 33 for short, is made by the body as part of its immune defence against infection and disease, particularly within the brain and spinal cord. And patients with Alzheimer's have been found to have lower amounts of IL 33 in their brains than healthy adults.

The researchers from the University of Glasgow and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology tested what effect a boost of IL 33 might have on mice bred to have brain changes akin to Alzheimer's. The rodents rapidly improved their memory and cognitive function to that of the age-matched normal mice within a week of having the injections.

Prof Eddy Liew, who led the work at the University of Glasgow, is excited but cautious about his findings. "Exciting as it is, there is some distance between laboratory findings and clinical applications. There have been enough false 'breakthroughs' in the medical field to caution us not to hold our breath until rigorous clinical trials have been done."

Dr Simon Ridley, Director of Research, Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "The role of the immune system in Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia is a promising area of focus for drug discovery efforts. "This early research in mice highlights a way of boosting the immune system to clear a toxic Alzheimer's protein, but we'll need to see the results of clinical trials before we'll know whether this approach could one day help people living with the disease."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36070987

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says Granny goofy enough as it is...

Substance in Marijuana Could Benefit Alzheimer’s Patients
June 30, 2016 - A substance found in marijuana might remove a kind of plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.

Writing in the journal Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, researchers from the Salk Institute say that the chemical THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and other active components of marijuana can “promote the cellular removal of amyloid beta, a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer's disease” in neurons grown in a lab. "Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer's, we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells," said Salk Professor David Schubert, the senior author of the paper.

One hemisphere of a healthy brain (L) is pictured next to one hemisphere of a brain of a person suffering from Alzheimer disease.

Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disease leading to memory loss and dementia. According to the National Institutes of Health, it affects more than 5 million Americans. Amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells has been associated with Alzheimer’s, and it usually appears before symptoms of the disease, but researchers remain unsure how it forms. For their study, Salk Institute researchers looked at nerve cells which had been altered to produce higher than normal amounts of amyloid beta. They found that higher levels of the substance “were associated with cellular inflammation and higher rates of neuron death.”

However, when exposed to THC, the levels of amyloid beta decreased, eliminating the “inflammatory response.” "Inflammation within the brain is a major component of the damage associated with Alzheimer's disease, but it has always been assumed that this response was coming from immune-like cells in the brain, not the nerve cells themselves," said Antonio Currais, a postdoctoral researcher in Schubert's laboratory and first author of the paper. "When we were able to identify the molecular basis of the inflammatory response to amyloid beta, it became clear that THC-like compounds that the nerve cells make themselves may be involved in protecting the cells from dying." While the tests were only done on cells in a lab, the researchers think further study could result in “novel therapeutics” to combat Alzheimer’s.

http://www.voanews.com/content/mht-t...s/3398855.html

[waltky]

Anti-inflammatory drug reverses Alzheimer's memory damage...

Pill for Menstrual Pain Restores Memory in Mice with Alzheimer's
August 15, 2016 - A surprising discovery has been made in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

An anti-inflammatory drug used to treat menstrual pain completely reversed memory symptoms in mice with Alzheimer's. The drug, called mefenamic acid, is a so-called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID, used to relieve menstrual cramps. In experiments with mice specially bred to have Alzheimer's symptoms, the rodents predictably developed memory problems over time. Ten of the Alzheimer's mice were treated for one month with mefenamic acid that was contained in tiny pumps implanted under their skin. Ten other mice with memory difficulties were injected with pumps of a placebo, or inactive substance. The rodents were placed in maze to train them to get around the obstacles.

A researcher holds a human brain in a laboratory in Chicago, July 29, 2013. Brain-imaging shows a lot of harmful inflammation in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

In a Skype interview, Mike Daniels, who participated in the research at the University of Manchester in Britain, said, "We tried to train the mice once they had Alzheimer's disease. The Alzheimer's mice are untrainable. They cannot learn that maze." But the results in the treated mice were stunning. "What was just amazing is that this drug seemed to render the mice completely normal,” Daniels said. “It's something we haven't really seen before, but there needs to be a lot more work done to really confirm whether this is real.”

Targeting inflammation

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications. The research was led by David Brough of the University of Manchester. Daniels said brain-imaging shows a lot of harmful inflammation in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Researchers believe mefenamic acid targets an inflammatory pathway called NLRP3, reducing inflammation. Scientist found that no other NSAIDS — including ibuprofen, which is commonly taken for pain — reduced the brain inflammation. Whether it would work in patients at all stages of Alzheimer's — from people with mild cognitive impairment to those who are severely affected — is difficult to say, according to the study authors. "Much more work needs to be done until we can say with certainty that it will tackle the disease in humans as mouse models don’t always faithfully replicate the human disease," Brough said.

Co-author Jack Rivers-Auty said, "Maybe, if this was translated into the clinic, we would definitely want to put it into people at the early stages of the disease to try to slow the progress or stop the progress of the disease," Rivers-Auty said. "Rather than taking the ambitious aim of taking someone who fully has Alzheimer's disease, has all the symptoms — incredible memory loss, incredible cognitive impairment — and trying to reverse those symptoms. That might be very difficult," he added. Mefenamic acid already has been approved by regulators so, after further testing, it could reach the market relatively quickly as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

http://www.voanews.com/a/pill-menstr...e/3465428.html

[waltky]

Allosteric ligands, targets a protein that is involved with memory...

New Alzheimer's Drug Slows Memory Loss, Extends Life in Mouse Model
December 19, 2016 - According to the Alzheimer's Association, an estimated 47 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative condition that causes severe dementia.

But researchers — originally at the University of Leicester in England, but now at the University of Glasgow in Scotland — have found a new class of drug that not only slows memory loss, but appears to restore it and to extend life in a mouse model of Alzheimer's. The drug, called allosteric ligands, targets a protein that is involved with memory. As patients with Alzheimer's deteriorate, the protein in a brain region called the hippocampus becomes less active. However, the experimental drug appears to activate the protein, called the M1 muscarinic receptor, which improves memory.

A patient prepares for a PET scan as part of a study on Alzheimer's disease at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington

Andrew Tobin, professor of molecular biology at the University of Glasgow, is lead author of the work, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Tobin says the drugs also extended the life of the mice. "[The drug is] still going through this [memory protein], but it's doing something else in the brain which is protecting the neurons from neurodegeneration,” he said. “And the big question that we have in the lab is, ‘What is that mechanism? What is the biochemical mechanism that underlies that response?’ And, of course, that's the next thing we'll be looking at." Current treatments for Alzheimer's disease are designed to ease symptoms, while researchers say their work represents an actual treatment.

The experimental compound was tested in a mouse model of Alzheimer's. The animals were bred to exhibit signs of mad cow disease, which looks similar to Alzheimer's in humans in terms of memory loss, progression and death. On a memory test, the untreated mice were unable to recall receiving a mild electric shock, while the treated mice did remember the stimulus. Tobin cautions that a drug is probably five to 10 years away. "These advances take us forward a step at a time,” he said. “So whereas they do give a lot of hope, … it's not an immediate cure.”

http://www.voanews.com/a/new-alzheim...l/3643150.html

[waltky]

New blood test for Alzheimer's looks very promising...

Blood test finds toxic Alzheimer's proteins
31 January 2018 - Scientists in Japan and Australia have developed a blood test that can detect the build-up of toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease.

The work, published in the journal Nature, is an important step towards a blood test for dementia. The test was 90% accurate when trialled on healthy people, those with memory loss and Alzheimer's patients. Experts said the approach was at an early stage and needed further testing, but was still very promising.

Brain scans

Alzheimer's disease starts years before patients have any symptoms of memory loss. The key to treating the dementia will be getting in early before the permanent loss of brain cells. This is why there is a huge amount of research into tests for Alzheimer's. One method is to look for a toxic protein - called amyloid beta - that builds up in the brain during the disease. It can be detected with brain scans, but these are expensive and impractical.

'Major implications'

The new approach, a collaboration among universities in Japan and Australia, looks for fragments of amyloid that end up in the blood stream. By assessing the ratios of types of amyloid fragment, the researchers could accurately predict levels of amyloid beta in the brain. Significantly, the study shows it is possible to look in the blood to see what is happening in the brain. Dr Abdul Hye, from King's College London, said: "This study has major implications as it is the first time a group has shown a strong association of blood plasma amyloid with brain and cerebrospinal fluid."

Early stages

The test is cheaper than brain scanning, "potentially enabling broader clinical access and efficient population screening", according to the study. At the moment there is no treatment to change the course of Alzheimer's, so any test would have limited use for patients. However, it could be useful in clinical trials. Prof Tara Spires-Jones, from the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, at the University of Edinburgh, said: "These data are very promising and may be incredibly useful in the future, in particular for choosing which people are suited for clinical trials and for measuring whether amyloid levels are changed by treatments in trials." Dr Hye added: "Considering Alzheimer's disease has a very long pre-clinical phase, a truer test will be how well this test performs in independent, healthy, cognitively normal individuals or even in individuals in the early stages of the disease."

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-42878721

[donttread]

Some dementia,, like so any diseases are in part lifestyle based