Posted on 12/11/2017 1:33:07 PM PST by Red Badger
An international team of scientists have confirmed the discovery of a major cause of dementia, with important implications for possible treatment and diagnosis.
Professor Garth Cooper from The University of Manchester, who leads the Manchester team, says the build-up of urea in the brain to toxic levels can cause brain damage - and eventually dementia.
The work follows on from Professor Cooper's earlier studies, which identified metabolic linkages between Huntington's, other neurodegenerative diseases and type-2 diabetes.
The team consists of scientists from The University of Manchester, the University of Auckland, AgResearch New Zealand, the South Australian Research and Development Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University.
The latest paper by the scientists, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that Huntington's Disease - one of seven major types of age-related dementia - is directly linked to brain urea levels and metabolic processes.
Their 2016 study revealing that urea is similarly linked to Alzheimer's, shows, according to Professor Cooper, that the discovery could be relevant to all types of age-related dementias.
The Huntington's study also showed that the high urea levels occurred before dementia sets in, which could help doctors to one day diagnose and even treat dementia, well in advance of its onset.
Urea and ammonia in the brain are metabolic breakdown products of protein. Urea is more commonly known as a compound which is excreted from the body in urine. If urea and ammonia build up in the body because the kidneys are unable to eliminate them, for example, serious symptoms can result.
Professor Cooper, who is based at The University of Manchester's Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, said: "This study on Huntington's Disease is the final piece of the jigsaw which leads us to conclude that high brain urea plays a pivotal role in dementia.
"Alzheimer's and Huntington's are at opposite ends of the dementia spectrum - so if this holds true for these types, then I believe it is highly likely it will hold true for all the major age-related dementias.
"More research, however, is needed to discover the source of the elevated urea in HD, particularly concerning the potential involvement of ammonia and a systemic metabolic defect.
"This could have profound implications for our fundamental understanding of the molecular basis of dementia, and its treatability, including the potential use of therapies already in use for disorders with systemic urea phenotypes."
Dementia results in a progressive and irreversible loss of nerve cells and brain functioning, causing loss of memory and cognitive impairments affecting the ability to learn. Currently, there is no cure.
The team used human brains, donated by families for medical research, as well as transgenic sheep in Australia.
Manchester members of the team used cutting-edge gas chromatography mass spectrometry to measure brain urea levels. For levels to be toxic urea must rise 4-fold or higher than in the normal brain says Professor Cooper.
He added: "We already know Huntington's Disease is an illness caused by a faulty gene in our DNA - but until now we didn't understand how that causes brain damage - so we feel this is an important milestone.
"Doctors already use medicines to tackle high levels of ammonia in other parts of the body Lactulose - a commonly used laxative, for example, traps ammonia in the gut. So it is conceivable that one day, a commonly used drug may be able to stop dementia from progressing. It might even be shown that treating this metabolic state in the brain may help in the regeneration of tissue, thus giving a tantalising hint that reversal of dementia may one day be possible."
Explore further: Kidney disease increases risk of diabetes, study shows
More information: Renee R. Handley el al., "Brain urea increase is an early Huntington's disease pathogenic event observed in a prodromal transgenic sheep model and HD cases," PNAS (2017). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711243115
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences search and more info website
Democrat party registration, and it begins at voting age.
OK, that’s just a symptom.
13 in. FR is slipping.
*
Troll Alert at # 2.
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Oh dear Lord...
I’d say that was one of the best disguised pieces of ‘sarcasm’ I’ve seen in a while....
Bookmark
BUMP. Important thread. Thanks for posting!
THESE PEOPLE ARE DEMNTED. But you are better than me, so I defer.
If that's the case then drinking more beer could be the ultimate preventative for this debilitating brain disease.........
Don't credit me, all the praise belongs to Cliff Clavin and his Buffalo Theory.........
Missing sense of humor alert a #25.
If you read the columns by Dr. Mercola, who addresses a lot of nutrition issues, he always talks about the danger of too much protein setting off the mTOR pathway, which causes inflammation and also presumably too much urea. Interesting stuff with regard to not only dementia, but cancer.
Much obliged.
During my last physical, my doctor asked me how often I get up at night to go the bathroom. (I am over 60.) I responded that that was not a good measure for me since I make NO attempt to curtail fluid intake around bed time.
I had watched both my mother and my father limit their fluid intake resulting in general confusion and poor mental state. I decided that I would not allow that to happen to me.
I think the elderly self-regulate fluid intake once they have issues of incontinence. It probably isn’t very fun to need Depends or to need to change them.
My plan is to stock up at Costco on Depends, given the apparent alternative! :)
Yes, I d like to hear more about the urea and the progress. Don’t these writers and researchers understand that lives are being affected daily, and we’d like to hear the potential “crime scene exploration” in case it could help someone even before the research is concluded one way or the other?
I have seen that urinary tract infections worsen dementia.
And we all know that dementia causes incontinence.
So I wonder what starts developing that could be stopped?
Oh, really?
Then why post it?
“I think the elderly self-regulate fluid intake once they have issues of incontinence.”
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I’m sure that is true,but most elderly do not suffer from incontinence,so keep on drinking lots of water.
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You are right, Lucy. Free speech for you but not me. Maybe you should go to a doctor to get that stick removed. Don’t reply. I couldn’t care less about anything you have to say.
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