Scientists discover chemical that breaks down Alzheimer's plaques in mice

[HuckleB]

http://www.sciencealert.com/korean-scientists-discover-chemical-that-breaks-down-alzheimer-s-plaques-in-mice

"One of the hypothesised causes of the mental deterioration associated with Alzheimer's disease is amyloid beta – a sticky protein that congregates on surfaces in the brain, forming hardened plaques and impeding neural communication.

But there's new hope that these plaques can be removed after they've formed, with a study by researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology discovering a chemical that can break amyloid plaques down in the brains of mice, improving the animals' learning and memory functions.

The chemical, called EPPS, is similar to taurine, which is used in energy drinks like Red Bull. When it was added to the drinking water of mice that showed symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (after having had their brains injected with amyloid plaques), the animals demonstrated better performance in maze and behavioural tests in contrast to untreated mice in a control group.

After seeing how the mice performed in tests, the researchers sectioned and stained their brains to help visualise the presence of amyloid beta plaques. They found that adding EPPS to the mice's daily drinking water had significantly reduced the levels of amyloid beta plaques in the mouse brains and substantially eliminated the formations at high doses.

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[Historic NY]

1. Maybe they should try it on Republicans they seem to have

Amnesia, but it seems much more serious condition than that. They completely lost an entire 8 yrs.

[boomer55]

2. I think there has to be a brain first before the chemical will work

[Staph]

3. I heard a lecture a few weeks ago . . .

by Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. From the Cure Alzheimer's website (http://curealz.org/people/rudy-tanzi):

Dr. Tanzi co-discovered three of the first Alzheimer’s disease genes and has identified several others in the Alzheimer’s Genome Project, which he directs. He also discovered the Wilson’s disease gene and participated in the discovery of several other neurological disease genes. Most recently, he has used AD genes to create a three- dimensional human stem cell-derived neural culture system that recapitulates AD plaque and tangle pathology. Using this system, Dr. Tanzi is also developing therapeutics for AD including gamma secretase modulators and metal chaperones to lower beta-amyloid and tangle burden in the brain.

One of the points of his lecture was that using mice for Alzheimer's research is problematical at best. It turns out that mice are effected differently by various drugs that have been tested for removing the plaques. The neural culture mentioned in the paragraph above is a gelatin-based culture that will grow human neurons (and plaques and tangles) in a period of six weeks that can be used to test dozens of drugs in a single framework, instead of waiting six months for a mouse to mature so that a single drug can be tested on that mouse.

By the way, Tanzi and company are not licensing or charging for the neural culture system. The instructions for creating your own culture are freely available, and if a lab or school doesn't have the resources to create their own, Tanzi will use his facilities at Harvard, Mass General and Cure Alzheimer's to do the testing for them.

That said, there are a lot of potential drugs in the testing pipeline right now. Tanzi believes that we will have cure for Alzheimer's by 2025. It may not help those who's brains have already been damaged by the disease, but it will help the rest of us to avoid this terrible disease.

He's a pretty darn amazing human being. I'm proud to know him!

[HuckleB]

4. It isn't the best subject, but it's a place to start, I guess.

Great post. Thanks for sharing.