A New Test And Treatment For Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a deadly neurodegenerative disorder and there’s no cure for it. However, scientists appear to have found a compound that could be used to develop a drug for treating patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and other disorders.

As you might know, when a brain cell is hijacked by a virus, the result is the building up of viral proteins. The cells defend by stopping almost all protein production to make sure that the virus doesn’t spread.

The same defense mechanism is started by many neurodegenerative disorders which involve the production of “faulty” proteins. But the cells shut down the production of proteins for so long that they die due to hunger. This mechanism can lead to the death of neurons throughout the brain, resulting in movement or memory problems or can even be fatal depending on the disorder.

The compound that was used by the scientists prevented the defense mechanisms from being activated, so there was no neurodegeneration. When the compound was used on mice, it prevented all neuron death from prion disease.

Of course, more research is required on the compound before a drug can be developed for use on humans, but this certainly seems to be a good start.

According to Prof. Roger Morris, from King’s College London,

“This finding, I suspect, will be judged by history as a turning point in the search for medicines to control and prevent Alzheimer’s disease”.

Internet: <www.mobilemag.com> (adapted).