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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."
I admit being truly scared of alzheimer's.
It may be completely irrational, but cancer looks much less scary in comparison.
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.
The type of Alzheimer's they talk about here is caused by ß-amyloidosis which is a mis folded protein disease (prion - like mad cow). What happens is that normal secondary protein structure is converted from an form to ß causing conformational changes in the protein's tertiary structure leading to insolubility (this insoluble protein is now called an amyloid). Supposedly the Rice researchers have found a way to prevent the ß-amyloid deposits from causing cell damage, however unless it's 100% efficient it won't be enough because misfolded proteins are "contagious" - that is they cause other normally folded protiens to convert to the insoluble misfolded amyloid which will proceed with exponential growth. Eventually you'll have every one of those proteins in the ß configuration.
You mean this Ted Stephens? The one that died in the plane crash?
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
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.
90-95% of the time that's true, but alzheimer's isn't always just an old timers disease. It's called early-onset Alzeimer's disease
When they were learning to talk, "old timer's disease" is how my kids mispronounced it. But as to "prejudice against old people", unlike arthritis, only old timers get alzheimer's.
For variable definitions of "old timers." Alzheimers can come decades before legal retirement age.
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.
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.
One would presume it would be regular medication, not a cure. This is just treatment for a symptom; which is a good thing.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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)