An Alzheimer’s disease “death switch” has been discovered that may hold the key to switching off the illness in the brain.
Alzheimer’s is believed to be caused by the pairing of two proteins that trigger destruction of brain cells and memory loss.
Researchers at Heidelberg University said that, by using a new compound to break apart this “deadly duo”, they were able to slow disease progression and protect brain cells.
The team, led by neurobiologist Hilmar Bading, worked with researchers from Shandong University (China) with a view to finding more effective Alzheimer’s treatments.
They used mice to show that a harmful protein interaction caused brain cells to die, leading to cognitive decline.
Then they developed a molecule to flick the switch on this damage.
“In Alzheimer’s mice treated with the molecule, disease progression was markedly slowed,” researcher Jing Yan said.
“The treated animals showed far less of the typical cellular damage associated with Alzheimer’s.
“Importantly, learning and memory abilities remained largely intact.”
According to the research report, the inhibitor could represent a broadly applicable strategy for slowing or stopping neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ALS.
However, Professor Bading said clinical use was still far in the future.
“The previous results are quite promising in the preclinical context, but comprehensive pharmacological development, toxicological experiments, and clinical studies are needed to realize a possible application in humans,” he said.
The findings were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
The full report can be found here.
