February 09, 2012 – Reviews PloS On and Neuron published on 1er February 2012, the encouraging results of studies on Alzheimer’s disease, carried out by two American teams of scientists.
This degenerative pathology affecting cognitive and memory capacities, killed 35.6 million people in 2010. According to these two studies, Alzheimer’s disease is linked to the propagation of the animal protein tau (tubule-associated unit), present in neurons.
This protein would develop in the brain like an infection, neuron by neuron. Faced with such results, scientists suggest that blocking this protein before it affects nerve cells could be the way to stop early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
To arrive at these conclusions, the researchers observed during 22 months the evolution of this pathology on the brains of mice carrying the Alzheimer gene.
Dr. Karen Duff of New York University Columbia, offers a form of immunotherapy, regularly used in certain cases of degenerative diseases, in order to fight against Alzheimer’s.
However, such a breakthrough has yet to be the subject of research and clinical studies. Seeing the commercialization of a treatment against Alzheimer’s disease is therefore not yet relevant.
Anaïs Lhôte – PasseportSanté.net
