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Scientists Find New Target For Alzhiemer's

Posted by kdawson on from the good-news-i-forget-why dept.

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."

9 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Scary, scary illness by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I admit being truly scared of alzheimer's.

    It may be completely irrational, but cancer looks much less scary in comparison.

    1. Re:Scary, scary illness by Rifter13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In the end, all you truly have, is your mind. Who you are, who you were, and who you will be, is all in your mind. Cancer kills the body... Alzhiemer's kills who you are, and who you could be, destroying your memory of who you were...

      I agree, other diseases, such as cancer do not put as much fear into me, as much as Alzhiemer's.

    2. Re:Scary, scary illness by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It may be completely irrational, but cancer looks much less scary in comparison.

      They're both horrible diseases. Cancer is physically torturous, alzheimer's mentally torturous. Both are hell on the people who love the afflicted.

      There are no good ways to die, but those two diseases have to be among the worst ways.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    3. Re:Scary, scary illness by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

      In the end, all you truly have, is your mind.

      I think, therefore I ... mmmmm pancakes

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    4. Re:Scary, scary illness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Alzhiemer's kills who you are, and who you could be, destroying your memory of who you were

      My Grandmother passed away this past December but had Alzheimer's for many years, progressively getting worse over time. In addition to what you list, I'd like to add that it has a large impact on those that care about the person. As my Grandmother's Alzheimer's state worsened, my mother and uncle (her only surviving children) became very frustrated in trying to care for her. Caring for someone that doesn't even know you is rough. Trying to hold a conversation, only to repeat it, knowing that it won't be remembered, is frustrating. You essentially care for the body of someone who "died" already.

      My family, probably like many others, has plenty of medical conditions to worry about. Alzheimer's is the one I fear above the others, not so much for what it will do to me, but for what it will do to those I love.

      Mij

  2. Hope for Pratchett? by Sparkycat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  3. Re:I hope by Defenestrar · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  4. Nice article by mesri · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  5. No hope for Pratchett! by Frans+Faase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.