A research team based in Mumbai have shown that it is possible to control the proteins that cause Alzheimer’s.
Dr Sudipta Maiti and his team at the Department of Chemical sciences, TATA Institute of Fundamental Research have researched the behaviour of Amyloid Beta proteins which when combined with other aberrant proteins are responsible for attacking brain cells causing the symptoms common to Alzheimer’s sufferers such as impaired speech, judgement, behaviour and most significantly memory.
Alzheimer’s affects 35.6 million people worldwide.
According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, a league of global, non-profit organizations that promote international Alzheimer’s awareness, in the next 40 years the amount of people diagnosed with the disease will increase to 115 million.
The research team’s breakthrough came with the discovery that once extricated from the pernicious bonds it formed with other rogue proteins, it resumes its natural job of assisting human memory and cognitive behaviour.
The experiment showed that, when introduced to an abnormally high concentration of brain fluid, the proteins transformed into oligomers (several of the proteins forming a compound).
The abnormal protein forms are toxic to the brain, consequently killing off brain cells and causing it to shrink.
The scientific community at large are now tasked with using this knowledge to target the oligomers and break their bond.
Tags: alzheimer, Alzheimer’s affects 35 million, Alzheimer’s can be reversed, Amyloid Beta proteins