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Scientists Find New Target For Alzhiemer's
GarryFre writes "Neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a new therapeutic target that can potentially lead to a new way to prevent the progression of Alzheimer's disease. The target called neutral sphingomyelinase (N-SMase) is a protein which, when activated, can cause a chain of reactions in the cell leading to neuronal death and memory loss. Already a substance has been found that shows some promise in halting the progression of the disease."
My grandfather died of alzheimers.
But atleast i have no heridity for alzheimers.
Why does Alzheimer's have to sound so much like "Old timers" when said? It's prejudice against old people!
Living With a Nerd
I admit being truly scared of alzheimer's.
It may be completely irrational, but cancer looks much less scary in comparison.
I hope that we can come up with a good way to fight Alzheimer's. It is such a heart-wrenching thing to have a loved one have it.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906 and was named after him
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease
That is why.
I'm likely in line for alzheimers, but pretty sure my heart will kill me before I get there. Genetics is a bitch.
Awesome for the rest of the world, though!
Sweet informative mod.
It seems like Alzheimer's research is progressing surprisingly rapidly. I wonder if treatments will come soon enough to save the minds of people already in the early stages? Terry Pratchett in particular springs to mind.
... but I forgot what it was.
(with my apologies for making light of a sad disease)
They could have found a new target for Alzheimer's, but no, it had to be its evil counterpart Alzhiemer's!
Damn Alzhiemer's, hogging all our scientists' efforts...
The link indicates that a target is something that advances the cure. It isn't in this case, it is something that triggers the disease.
Certainly if we can trigger the disease, we can start to look at how we can prevent the disease from being triggered; but, from reading the editors "contribution", you would think they advanced the treatment side of things. They haven't (yet).
Well, after I submitted and re-read the summary, it actually reads well. Good job GaryFre! Apologies for the previous complaint.
A typo in the title, or a first sign of...
If they want to pick a target for Alzheimer's, target Ted Stevens. That guy is loses a part of his mind every day!
Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
Neutral Sphingomyelinase is a well-known target in AD, with published references available throughout the 90's. Nice that they've rediscovered it, though.
this kind of irrational thinking could be your onset of alzheimer's
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Pretty good article (the original in J. Neurosci). Alzheimer's has long been believed to be caused by aggregates of amyloid-beta protein, but exactly how they kill neurons (and in what stage of aggregation) has been pretty controversial. They showed a pathway from the amyloid-beta through this N-SMase to neuron death in small assemblies _and_ in larger aggregates, which should make everybody happy (or maybe no one). The important caveat though is that this was in vitro testing, and everything to do with studying Alzheimer's has been confounded by the subtle differences between in vivo and in vitro.
Yeah. It's called "Old People"
NEXT.
Is THAT what the big fat idiot is funding? Too late!
Infuriate left and right
My suspicious is these are co-symptoms of Alzheimers and not the real cause. The results may be limited.
I think it is not progressing surprisingly rapidly. Because I do have a partner with Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease, I follow the scientic news announcements, and I have to say that this particular news announcement is like many that are made almost every month. This is only talking about a potential target. It does not even talk about a possible medicine. If a medicine is found, it usually takes at least five year before it could become available for the general public. Even if this is a valid target, it could still take several years before finding a medicine that only works on the target. So, it could still take ten years before a medicine based on this target could become available.
Alzheimer's Disease is a progressive and fatal disease with an life expectancy of about 10 years after diagnoses. So, based on this facts I would conclude that this is no hope for Pratchett!
It is true that Alzheimer's Disease is now where cancer used to be fifty years ago. What many people don't know is that the total costs for Alzheimer's Disease, in the Western world, are already larger than the total costs for cancer, and are expected to rise rapidly in face of demographic developments, especially in Europe.
If we can get ideological belief out of science, we could very well have the technology to grow you a new heart before yours quits.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That would be an old target for alzhiemers.
A new target would be...sea bass.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
My father died of complications of Altzheimers.
It was hell on my mother for years, but *he* seemed to enjoy it.
(The complication was that a year or two after he had been "hospitalized" and gotten to the point where they had to strap him into the bed, one night he stood up in bed and fell out of it, landing on his head and breaking his neck.)
Altzheimers is hard on those close to the patient, not so much on the patient. But this *does* depend on the form. Some people stay aware that they are losing their minds. My father never seemed to notice. I still remember him trying to seduce my wife while both my mother and I were in the room, he was confined to a bed. He was stroking her arm and telling her he didn't have any family...
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
for test tubes.
i wonder when the military will get the idea to use this idea as a weapon.
"hey lets build something to activate this protein, put it in their water supply and give our enemies alzheimer..."
Wow, a rational point of view in regards to science and life extension!? Get out of my Slashdot! Science should only be used to build enormous white metal cylinders filled with kerosene to chase after irrational Space Age ideals that never made sense! Not to live longer, better lives. No, that's wrong somehow. Wanting more space is OK, but more time is wrong. Right Slashgeeks?
No, i was attempting a variation of the stupid "I may have alzheimers but atleast i don't have alzheimers" joke.
But you're obviously all too dense to appreciate subtlety, so here you have the explanation for it.
And if you wonder, yes he really had alzheimers, it may not have been the precise reason he died but it was at an advanced stage when he passed away.
The magazine 'Cell' of 17-sep-2010, published research from an Australian research group showing that the plaques are caused by a chainreaction with APP (Ameloid Precursor Protein). This is caused by Zinc-ions blocking APP from functioning, so they can't remove iron from the brain (Fe2+). The iron causes the cells to die. Also, the APP is broken down and stored as plaques. These plaques cause more zinc to stack and disable even more APP, leading to a runaway chainreaction.
note: I can't paste anything in this box or I'd post the link (Chrome is broken again or slashdot's javascript is braindead again). But do look it up. This looks like the key to the disease.
Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
I just read "Scientists Forget New Target For Alzhiemer's"... Freudian much?
Considering they(grandparents) were cousins, I'm sure I would've been better off had she been a dirty slut, genetically speaking.
Unfortunately she's(alive still, and) a strict and religious lady.
That being said, who doesn't love their grandparents even though they have their flaws?
However, i do plan to cheat my fate by being an educated person and as such having a smaller chance to catch alzheimers, by also being a doctor i should have the best possible defense against neural degeneration.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/27/1354225