by Ilan Gattegno
Scientists find way to correct genetic flaw that causes Alzheimer's • Lab mice treated with new therapy recovered from illness • "We believe our study opens up new directions for the development of effective treatment of Alzheimer's," researcher says.
Lab mice treated with new
therapy recovered from illness [Illustrative]
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Photo credit: Getty Images  |
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have
developed a new approach to innovative treatment of Alzheimer's,
providing hope to those with the degenerative disease. They have found a
way to correct the flaw in the gene that causes Alzheimer's. Lab mice
treated with the new therapy recovered from the illness.
Researchers Professor Danny Michaelson and
doctoral student Anat Bam-Kagan focused on the ApoE4 gene, which is
present in 60% of Alzheimer patients.
"For 20 years, researchers around the world
have been trying to find an effective way of treating Alzheimer's, but
without any luck," according to Michaelson. "Scientists have known that
60% of patients carry the bad ApoE4 gene. However, the gene's activity
has never been studied in depth until now. In recent years, mouse models
with ApoE4 have been developed, and they did show pathological traits
similar to those found in Alzheimer's patients: memory loss and learning
disabilities, a fewer number of connections between nerve cells in the
brain and additional damage to brain tissue, similar to the kind seen in
the brains of [Alzheimer's] patients," he said.
Researchers in Michaelson's lab discovered a
correlation between the protein manufactured by the ApoE4 gene and a
decreased amount of fats, when compared to the protein manufactured by
the normal version of the gene, ApoE3.
"We still didn't know if this difference was
of any importance when it comes to Alzheimer's, but we looked for a way
to increase the amount of fats connecting to the defective protein, to
make it more similar to the normal protein," Michaelson said. "We
decided to focus on the "glue" that binds the fat molecules to the
protein molecules -- a system called ABCA1 -- and tried to increase its
efficiency." At this stage, the researchers contacted biotechnology
company Artery Therapeutics in the U.S., which discovered a substance
that improves the function of the so-called glue. "We injected the
substance into mice with the faulty gene, which are similar to
Alzheimer's patients, and we saw that it did in fact penetrate the
brain." Within a short time, researchers noticed that the new substance
was correcting the cognitive and pathological issues in the model mice,
in effect curing them of Alzheimer's.
"We believe our study opens up new directions
for the development of effective treatment of Alzheimer's," Michaelson
said, adding that it is important to expand research on the ApoE4 gene,
which "plays a central role in the disease, and constitutes a clear
target in the development of a cure."
The study was published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Ilan Gattegno
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=36961
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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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