Current treatment and prevention methods for Alzheimer’s disease are not a cure for the disorder but are rather aimed at managing symptoms of dementia and memory loss. The estimated worldwide cost of coping with Alzheimer’s is $818 billion. There has been some recent research suggesting that preventing memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s might be possible, and that previous damage may even be reversible. Promising new research from the Imperial College London suggests there may be a way to stop the disease in its tracks. Researchers have released data from animal studies in which they aided prevention of Alzheimer’s disease in mice by using a virus to deliver a specific gene into the brain.
This gene, PGC-1α, interferes with the production of beta-amyloid peptides, which are the cause of plaque deposits responsible for the destruction of neurons in Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. These plaques are thought to trigger brain cell death, so stopping them will be a big step forward towards Alzheimer’s disease prevention.
The Findings
There were four groups of mice in the study, and one group was injected with the gene into two areas of the brain associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, the hippocampus and cortex. Compared to the mice not treated with the gene, the PGC-1α had far fewer plaques in their brain and performed far better in memory tasks. They did as well as healthy, control group mice in both short-term and long-term memory tests.\
After the four-month trial, the mice with the PGC-1α gene had no loss of brain cells in their hippocampi and a reduction in glial cells, which release toxic inflammatory substances into the brain that can cause additional cell damage.
Researchers are hoping this new discovery could help prevent the brain cell death associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
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| Source: nih.gov |
What Does This Mean for Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Today?
While these findings are very exciting for the future of Alzheimer’s disease prevention, it’s important to note this study is just a proof-of-concept. “We are still years from using this in the clinic,” Dr. Sastre, senior study investigator noted. “However, in a disease that urgently needs new options for patients, this work provides hope for future therapies." Many other pharmaceutical companies and universities across the world are working on innovative new Alzheimer’s disease prevention methods and therapies, and studies like this bring new approaches to curing this disease.
The results of this study show that gene therapy is a potential avenue to pursue in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, but more research is needed to determine how this could be used in humans.
"There are currently no treatments able to halt the progression of damage in Alzheimer's, so studies like this are important for highlighting new and innovative approaches to take us towards that goal,” Dr. David Reynolds, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Alzheimer’s Research U.K. noted. “This research sets a foundation for exploring gene therapy as a treatment strategy for Alzheimer's disease, but further studies are needed to establish whether gene therapy would be safe, effective and practical to use in people with the disease. The findings support PGC-1-alpha as a potential target for the development of new medicines, which is a promising step on the road towards developing treatments for this devastating condition."
