The long battle with Alzheimer has just had a breakthrough. A recent study that was published took a three-pronged approached to help prevent the early onset of the disease. What is even better, the scientists were successful in preventing the development of the disease in lab mice.
Alzheimer's is a degenerative disease the normally occurs in middle or old age. Its effects are affects millions of people worldwide and currently, people who are affected by the disease experience irreversible damage. However, with the recent developments, there seems to be a glimmer of hope.
"Common diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and dementia are caused in part by abnormal accumulation of certain proteins in the brain," said senior author Dr. Huda Zoghbi, professor of molecular and human genetics and of pediatrics -- neurology and developmental neuroscience at Baylor and director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital.
"Some proteins become toxic when they accumulate; they make the brain vulnerable to degeneration. Tau is one of those proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease and dementia." They further added.
Scientists had always tried to focus more on the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. Now that they are trying to find more clues on the earlier development stages and preventing irreversible symptoms from appearing. Scientists now believe that if they can reduce the accumulation of tau or prevent it from accumulating, they might be able to develop new medicines and treatments for Alzheimer's disease.
"We inhibited about 600 kinases one by one and found one, called Nuak1, whose inhibition resulted in reduced levels of tau," said Zoghbi, who is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
He also said, "When people started taking drugs that lower cholesterol, they lived longer and healthier lives rather than dying earlier of heart disease." Furthermore, states, "Nobody has thought about Alzheimer's disease in that light. Tau in Alzheimer's can be compared to cholesterol in heart disease. Tau is a protein that when it accumulates as the person ages, increases the vulnerability of the brain to developing Alzheimer's. So maybe if we can find drugs that can keep tau at levels that are not toxic to the brain, then we would be able to prevent or delay the development of Alzheimer's and other diseases caused in part by toxic tau accumulation."
