New research supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Aging, part of the federal government's National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Defense, brings hope to the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.
Reported in the Sept. 2 issue of the journal Nature, the problem in Alzheimer's disease, is beta-amyloid, a protein that accumulates in the brain and causes nerve cells to weaken and die.
Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and
thinking skills, and eventually even the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In most people with Alzheimer’s, symptoms first appear after age 60.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older people. Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning—thinking, remembering, and reasoning—to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Estimates vary, but experts suggest that as many as 5.1 million Americans may have Alzheimer’s.
Drugs designed to eliminate plaques made of beta-amyloid have a fatal problem: they need to enter the brain and remove the plaques without attacking healthy brain cells. Scientists have learned an enormous amount about how beta-amyloid plaques are formed and the toxic effects that these structures as well as the earlier forms of beta-amyloid have on neurons and synapses. These findings have opened up new avenues of investigation and new possibilities for therapeutic targets. New research from the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Paul Greengard, however, suggests that treatments modeled on the blockbuster cancer drug Gleevec could be the solution.
Gleevec has the unique ability to bind to a protein that triggers the production of beta-amyloid plaques. The new research from Greengard's lab shows that this protein, called gamma-secretase activating protein (GSAP), dramatically and selectively increases the production of beta-amyloid peptide, which makes up the senile plaques found in the brains of most people with Alzheimer's.
We are still far from shouting "success" and "cure" but we are inching closer. Scientists are conducting studies to learn more about plaques, and other features of Alzheimer’s disease. They can now visualize plaques by imaging the brains of living individuals. They are also exploring the very earliest steps in the disease process. Findings from these studies will help them understand the causes of Alzheimer’s.
in function and behavior, with a central focus on human brain-behavior relationships. Neuropsychological research attempts to map the brain structures and functions that are critical for particular mental/cognitive, emotional, and behavioral capacities.
