Blocking a Key Enzyme May Reverse Memory Loss, MIT Study Finds (mit.edu)

A better treatment for Alzheimer's patients may be on the horizon thanks to new research from MIT. Researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory have discovered that they can reverse memory loss in mice by blocking an enzyme called HDAC2. From the study: For several years, scientists and pharmaceutical companies have been trying to develop drugs that block this enzyme, but most of these drugs also block other members of the HDAC family, which can lead to toxic side effects. The MIT team has now found a way to precisely target HDAC2, by blocking its interaction with a binding partner called Sp3. "This is exciting because for the first time we have found a specific mechanism by which HDAC2 regulates synaptic gene expression," says Li-Huei Tsai, director of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the study's senior author. Blocking that mechanism could offer a new way to treat memory loss in Alzheimer's patients. In this study, the researchers used a large protein fragment to interfere with HDAC-2, but they plan to seek smaller molecules that would be easier to deploy as drugs. Picower Institute postdocs Hidekuni Yamakawa, Jemmie Cheng, and Jay Penney are the lead authors of the study, which appears in the Aug. 8 edition of Cell Reports.

Comments

Good Stuff

[Mr D from 63]

Sounds like an important development. These are the kind of stories I'd love to see more of, no agenda, an accurate non-clickbait headline, no opinionated assumptions in the summary. Refreshing.

Re:Useless enzymes.

[arth1]

And the purpose of this useless enzyme is?

It's a gene disabler. Those are very important, because every new cell in the body has a full set of DNA and the potential to grow into any type of cell if genes aren't disabled. In other words, it helps prevent your body from growing hundreds of organs instead of one or two, or bone in your eyelids for that matter.

Re:Save our medical / social care systems

[Anne Thwacks]

We already know the claim that what causes most cases of type 2 diabetes, excessive body fat usually brought on by eating too much sugar is completely wrong.

However, I can tell you, as someone who does not like sugar and has actively avoided it most of my life, that undiagnosed, and therefore untreated diabetes can make you crave sugar.

There is plenty of evidence that most type II diabetes is caused by a problem with gut bacteria.

Also, everybody gradually develops insulin intolerance as they age - it is just a question of how fast, and whether they live long enough for it to be classified as diabetes.