Slashdot Mirror
Brain Implants Relieve Alzheimer's Damage
Genetically engineered cells implanted in mice have cleared away toxic plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. The animals were sickened with a human gene that caused them to develop, at an accelerated rate, the disease that robs millions of elderly people of their memories. After receiving the doctored cells, the brain-muddling plaques melted away. If this works in humans, old age could be a much happier time of life.
I too am dealing with the loss of a loved one (grandmother) to Alzheimer's. More so than pretty much any other disease, it robs you of your ability to grieve for the loss of a loved one. Whereas someone lost to cancer or a heart attack goes from a very clear state of being alive to being dead, Alzheimer's victims aren't that way.
I'm not sure when my grandmother died since her body is still very much alive, but I know that it happened. I know that the woman I knew as a child is no longer alive. I know that every time I visit her, I come anew to the same realization that she's gone. It's a cruel trick of nature to leave a visual image that triggers memories of when she was alive. And that's something that those who's loved ones have been buried/cremated/etc don't have to deal with.
Here's hoping that these and future developments will lead to a cure for this disease because no one, neither victim nor family members, should be put through what Alzheimer's does.