Posted on 02/21/2016 5:33:18 PM PST by SeekAndFind
A scientist whose major breakthroughs have emerged from studying the brains of Irish families says we are only five to 10 years away from a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
In a recent interview with the Irish Times, Professor Tim Lynch, currently with the Dublin Neurological Institute at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, recounted the discovery he made while working in New York almost 20 years ago, which changed the course of his research.
In 1994, Lynch was part of a team studying frontotemporal dementia in an Irish American family at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The team discovered that the mutation of the tau protein is responsible for that particular kind of dementia, which occurs in the brain's frontal lobes (behind your forehead) or temporal lobes (behind your ears). One in five cases of dementia is caused by frontotemporal dementia, which is particularly devastating as it robs people of their personalities.
Lynch and his team were successfully able to predict where in the stem loop of the tau gene the mutations would occur over time.
According to the Irish Times, "This discovery changed the science and direction of dementia research across the globe, including work on Alzheimer’s disease, because the tau protein is also abnormal in the brains of Alzheimer patients."
Until two years ago, all of their predictions regarding the locations of the mutations had been proven correct except for one.
A 44-year-old farmer with a family history of neurodegenerative disease, which had been diagnosed as Alzheimer's, came to the Dublin Neurological Institute, where Lynch, back in Ireland by then, was working.
He was suffering from short-term memory loss and was experiencing a number of unsettling personality changes including apathy and impulsivity.
As Lynch told the Irish Times, "The patient had a family history of neurodegenerative diseases that had been previously labeled as Alzheimer's but the clinical pattern was peculiar."
"I had been waiting for something like this for over 15 years, to complete the circle that started with the initial research in the US," he added.
As it turned out, the very tau mutation Lynch had been unable to locate two decades earlier was the mutation causing brain degeneration in this family.
"The result of this research will be used to bring new awareness to this particular field of neurology and result in new interest and funding for the development of much-needed novel treatments," he said.
He expressed confidence that a cure for dementia is on the hear horizon. "We can now stop multiple sclerosis in its tracks using biologic agents, and we hope to be doing the same with dementia in the next 10 years."
Interestingly, he also noted that Ireland is a particularly ideal base for studying neurological disorders because the population has largely remained genetically homogenous and the typically large size of Irish families makes it possible to study the genetic factors behind brain conditions.
An article about the tau mutation by Lynch and his colleagues appeared in the recent issue of the Oxford journal "Brain."
I just went to a wedding where the groom was one of Irish triplets....identical twins and a 11 month younger brother.
;-)
LOL!
Why would he be sad the guy who regularly beat him up, died?
They better hurry, an hour ago I spent about thirty seconds trying to remember how to spell the word ‘World”.
Not soon enough to treat the tRump supporters
The cure would have to be applied thirty years before Alzheimer’s becomes apparent, so you’re probably right about not making it, unless they also fund a cure for aging.
Just wondering how he can put a date on it. Is it because the technology to produce a serum/vaccine/pill is not available yet? How is the research progressing?
Nah. A pint of the ‘black’.
My mother ultimately died from Alzheimers, but as a quick test one day while alive, my sister asked Mom, “Mom, do you know who I am?” Mom quickly shot back “Well, you should know who you are”. LMAO! Mom wasn’t that bad off at that day.
It would be lovely if this were accurate. Too late for my father (11/22/2014) but in time for my children.
Damn man, I was hoping that after that much time, he would of let it go and said "Too bad for his passing" or something.
You Irish :-)
Isn’t part of the reason that Alzheimer’s is so prevalent, because people are living longer?
Consider Ronald Reagan. He had cancer at age 74, and his cancer surgery and treatment were complete successes. He lived till age 93. In decades past, Reagan may well have died of cancer, and never lived long enough to develop Alzheimer’s.
When did that happen? MS is not a disease that I've kept up with in the last 20 years or so, but I don't recall having seen that claim before.
I've been wondering about that since my ex-wifes father and his mother both have/had it.
I'm concerned for my kids
I didn’t say he was happy. Why would he be sad though?
You are sad about friends or acquaintences passing. Not someone who was a continual ass to you for such a long time. That doesn’t mean they’re jumping for joy, but lack of one emotion doesn’t automatically mean the opposite emotion is present.
They made a pill to increase memory but it didn’t work because nobody would remember to to take it.
Didn't BOR claim in his book "Killing Reagan" that Reagan had it while in office?
So if Reagan had not survived cancer, BOR would have had one less controversial insult to put in his book. And that would have made his book less "fair" according to his logic.
Yes, and the Cold Fusion crowd told us in 2008 that almost limitless extremely low cost energy would be available from Cold Fusion within five to eight years. I know that 2016 is not over yet, but I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe anything other than an announcement that within five to eight years we will have almost limitless extremely low cost energy from Cold Fusion.
There is a cure for Alzheimer’s disease today. It is known as dying.
He’ll have forgotten by then....
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