Posted on 11/01/2014 6:54:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sarasota scientists have made a discovery that may pave the way for more effective drug therapies to treat Alzheimer’s patients in the future.
In a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Roskamp Institute’s scientists say they have isolated a single enzyme connected to all three key factors in Alzheimer’s disease – accumulation of amyloid protein, inflammation and modulation of the “tau” protein. All three damage nerve cells in the brain.
“These studies suggest there is a single drug target to inhibit all three key pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease,” stated the study’s lead researcher, neurobiologist Daniel Paris, in a media release.
The hope now is that this finding will enable the development of drugs that target the spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) enzyme, which has been indicated as a “crossroad which all three of the brain abnormalities known to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease diverge,” states the study’s senior author, Dr. Michael Mullan,
The Sarasota researchers came across their findings while determining how the anti-hypertensive drug Nilvadipine reduces amyloid protein accumulations, the release said. Researchers realized that drug also had effects on inflammation and tau protein. In retracing the steps that led to these three factors, scientists found they all led back to SYK protein.
Paris said this discovery opens the potential for creating a single drug that helps control all three main Alzheimer characteristics. As of now, the only drugs tested work on a single pathology at a time.
“What is needed is one drug to address all three,” the release quoted him as saying.
Channel 10 news reported that a single drug that does all three could be available within five years. Clinical trials are currently under way in Europe.
Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that impacts memory, behavior and thinking, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It is estimated to affect more than 5 million Americans and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
I saw a movie where a potential Alzheimer’s treatment led to humanity’s domination by the apes. So....maybe this isn’t a good idea?
It could have been gerbils...
Planet of the Gerbils
I have family suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
I’ll select real life over a fantasy movie.
It’s a horrible disease.
Have you seen any studies that look at the relationship of fat to the brain, or more specifically, the effect of a low fat diet to the aging of the brain.
There is readily available information that the brain needs fat to grow. I did some basic research when my son was an infant and everyone including his pediatrician thought he should go on a low fat diet because he was a very fat baby.
The research said that the brain grows faster than any other organ in an infant/toddler and the brain loves fat. I didnt change his diet and he dropped all the weight as soon as he became mobile.
In adults, the white matter of the brain continues to grow. I was wondering if you go on a low fat diet, are you starving the brain? Making it susceptible/vulnerable to attacks by these enzymes?
More questions than answers on this subject. I have looked but cannot find any studies that address fat and the brain in older adults or Alzheimer patients. I was wondering if you have?
My beloved father had it. I pray to God daily for a cure, that no one ever has to see their loved one slip away as he did.
I will add you to my prayers.
There are also several studies showing a link to Alzheimers and dementia with the long term use of statins to lower cholesterol. Apparently the brain needs cholesterol to stay healthy. I don't have a link to that at the moment but a google search should turn it up.
I have an in-law with no AD in his gene pool, that we know of. Once he turned sixty, he was terrified of getting heart disease, so in order to keep his cholesterol way down, he went on the highest possible dose of Simvastatin. By sixty-nine he was diagnosed with AD, and continues to deteriorate rapidly.
It also runs in my family. Does rheumatoid arthritis also accompany the disease? It does in mine.
I have access to a college internet library and will do some research for you. Reason this caught my attention is that because of hormones (PMS), hypothyroid, and low blood sugar I used to have epilepsy. Found out 1/3 of epileptics do well with a high fat diet.
LOVE BACON!
Also dementia runs in family with correlated rheumatoid arthritis (autoimmune disease).
I have family with one or the other, but not both.
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