Alzheimer's Therapy Findings

Alzheimer's disease is a type of brain disease that causes people who have it to lose their memory abilities. Although the signs of Alzheimer's aren't immediate it is still a very serious disease. At first you begin to lose your memory and as time goes on you forget more and more. Eventually you end up bed-ridden when too many of your brain cells are damaged and last but not least, you die. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease but many scientists have been working on cures and treatments that would either slow down the process or cure it. Recently researchers from German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität have discovered that the protein ADAM10 can prevent beta-amyloid production. Beta-amyloids are produced from amyloid precursor proteins (APP) and are responsible for Alzheimer's disease. After beta-amyloid is produced from the APP an enzyme comes to remove the beta-amyloid part of the protein from the APP. During an experiment organized by Dr. Stefan Lichtenthaler the ADAM10 gene was the only gene out of three that could inhibit the complete making of beta-amyloids. The ADAM10 gene blocks the enzyme that comes to remove the beta-amyloid from the APP. ADAM10 has been found to be less active in Alzheimer's patients which allows more beta-amyloid to be produced.

This is biology related because it studies the brain, brain damage, and the molecules involved doing the damage. Research for Alzheimer's disease has been going on for years. Even though there are pills to slow down the affect of Alzheimer's that's all they do is slow it down. Researchers find out new things about this disease ever so often and they are getting close to finding more effective treatments and maybe even a cure. By knowing that ADAM10 blocks beta-amyloid production they can now find a way to put it into a medicine or treatment that may stop Alzheimer's for good.

Alzheimer's isn't a disease that means immediate death but it does mean death. We should care about this because Alzheimer's can happen to anyone. Although some are more prone to the disease because of genetics it can still happen. Millions of people lose loved ones because of Alzheimer's disease every year. When cures and better treatments are found it means no more losing the people we love. It's difficult to watch a loved one go through this disease and it's even more difficult if you're the one it's happening to.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100730191501.htm