Why 2 new studies represent important breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease research

Two different research groups have independently made the same important discoveries on how Alzheimer’s disease spreads in the brain, according to a February 2 New York Times story. The groups’ findings have the potential to give us a much more sophisticated understanding of what goes wrong in Alzheimer’s disease and, more importantly, what can be done to prevent or repair damage in the brain.

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Alzheimer’s drug candidate may be first to prevent disease progression

A new drug candidate may be the first capable of halting the devastating mental decline of Alzheimer’s disease, based on the findings of a study published today in PLoS one.

When given to mice with Alzheimer’s, the drug, known as J147, improved memory and prevented brain damage caused by the disease. The new compound, developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, could be tested for treatment of the disease in humans in the near future.

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Researchers design Alzheimer’s antibodies

Troy, N.Y. – Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to design antibodies aimed at combating disease. The surprisingly simple process was used to make antibodies that neutralize the harmful protein particles that lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

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New findings contradict dominant theory in Alzheimer’s disease

For decades the amyloid hypothesis has dominated the research field in Alzheimer’s disease. The theory describes how an increase in secreted beta-amyloid peptides leads to the formation of plaques, toxic clusters of damaged proteins between cells, which eventually result in neurodegeneration. Scientists at Lund University, Sweden, have now presented a study that turns this premise on its head.

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A safer vaccination for Alzheimer’s disease?

The research shows that in addition to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, which present the antigen vaccine to the immune cells, genetic factors, that control some immune cells, influence the quality of response to vaccinations. The results could make it possible to prevent neuroinflammatory reactions, which are major obstacles preventing the use of the vaccination in humans. This study has just been published in the Journal of Immunology. Since the beginning of the 2000s, research into Alzheimer’s disease has partly focussed on studying a vaccination composed of amyloid-β peptide (Aß), the accumulation of which in the brain is thought to trigger the disease. Vaccinations with this peptide caused serious neuroinflammatory reactions in 6% of patients. To develop a safer and more effective treatment, it is therefore essential to understand the factors that influence the body’s responses to peptide Aß.

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Award-winning research points toward Alzheimer’s vaccine

An accomplice to the protein that causes plaque buildup in Alzheimer’s disease is the focus of a potential new treatment, according to research by a Georgia Health Sciences University graduate student.

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A gene for Lou Gehrig’s disease and frontotemporal dementia identified

Frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — two fatal neurodegenerative disease with distinct symptoms — are triggered by a common mutation in many cases, according to researchers who say they have identified the mutated gene.

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Breaching the blood-brain barrier

Cornell University researchers may have solved a 100-year puzzle: How to safely open and close the blood-brain barrier so that therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and cancers of the central nervous system might effectively be delivered. (Journal of Neuroscience, Sept. 14, 2011.)

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Aerobic exercise may reduce the risk of dementia, Mayo Clinic researchers say

Any exercise that gets the heart pumping may reduce the risk of dementia and slow the condition’s progression once it starts, reported a Mayo Clinic study published this month in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers examined the role of aerobic exercise in preserving cognitive abilities and concluded that it should not be overlooked as an important therapy against dementia.

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Alzheimer’s brains found to have lower levels of key protein

Researchers have found that a protein variation linked by some genetic studies to Alzheimer’s disease is consistently present in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. In further biochemical and cell culture investigations, they have shown that this protein, known as ubiquilin-1, performs a critical Alzheimer’s-related function: it “chaperones” the formation of amyloid precursor protein, a molecule whose malformation has been directly tied to Alzheimer’s pathology.

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