RESEARCH
As of today, Alzheimer's has no current cure. Currently, we have no treatment to stop Alzheimer's from progressing. However, there are treatments that can temporarily slow down dementia symptoms and improve quality of life for Alzheimer's patients and their families. Researchers are looking for new treatments that can stop Alzheimer's from progressing or even reverse Alzheimer's. Here are some of recent studies on new treatments for Alzheimer's disease:
"Toxic Tau Of Alzheimer's May Offer A Path To Treatment"
"After years of setbacks, Alzheimer's researchers are sounding optimistic again. The reason: a brain protein called tau."
For a long time, researchers have argued whether the protein tau or Beta amyloid was the main culprit of causing dementia in Alzheimers. New research shows that they may work together to cause cell death. In the past, drugs that target only beta amyloid have proved to be fairly ineffective. Recent research shows that tau can actually "spread" in some sort, like that of a prion. This new understanding of tau allows us to develop more effective treatment for reducing cell death in Alzheimers. At this year's Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C., there are more than 100 papers on tau, which is responsible for the tangles that form in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. In the past, tau has received less attention than another protein called amyloid beta, which causes the sticky plaques associated with Alzheimer's......" |
"A tangle of protein (green) in this scanning electron micrograph of a brain cell of an Alzheimer's patient lies within the cytoplasm (blue) of the cell. The tangle consists of clumps of a toxic form of tau. Thomas J. Deerinck Corbis"
http://tpr.org/post/toxic-tau-alzheimers-may-offer-path-treatment |
"Alzheimer's Disease Breakthrough Developments"
"New breakthrough developments have surfaced for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. According toHerald Tribune Health, Daniel Paris, a scientist with the Roskamp Institute stated researchers with Roskamp may have found an enzyme which controls symptoms related to Alzheimer’s Disease. If these researchers can further develop a drug which turns this enzyme off, they believe certain symptoms related to Alzheimer’s Disease may shut down too."
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"Can we reverse Alzheimer's?"
Dr. Rudy Tanzi, the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School is helping create PBT2, a drug that's now in phase 2 clinical trials in Australia. PBT2 is believed to prevent plaques and tangles from forming. "It induces new neurons to grow in the hippocampus, which should improve executive function," says Dr. Tanzi.
Another treatment is Neuro AD which is developed in Israel. Neuro AD uses noninvasive electromagnetic energy to stimulate the associate brain region of a Alzheimer's patient and challenges the patient to solve a problem. Neuro AD is not a cure foe Alzeimer's disease. However, it help the brain circuits work better, improve cognitive functions and improve Alzheimer's patients' life quality. |
Manipulating PERK experessions
In the study "Genetic or Pharmacological Reduction of PERK Enhances Cortical-Dependent Taste Learning" published in the Journal of Neuroscience on October 29, 2014, a way to improve memory by manipulating protein PERK (PKR-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase) expressions without interfering to the proper functioning of the brain in mice has been found. Previous studies had shown that the brain's process of formulating memory is linked to the synthesis of proteins; the higher the rates of protein synthesis, the better the memory will be. Also, it is known that PERK performs incorrectly in generative diseases like Alzheimer's. In this study, researchers have found that PERK controls activity of eIF2α, a protein that regulates the pace of protein synthesis in the brain. After suppressing PERK's expressions through gene therapy, which allows eIF2α to perform better, they found an increase in memory in mice. The mice showed better long-term memory and improved behavioral plasticity. The study means a possible way to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/44/14624.full.pdf+html