Brain Foundation awards €550,000 to Alzheimer’s research
Every year, 25,000 people develop Alzheimer’s, one of the most common forms of dementia. No wonder scientists are doing everything they can to stop the disease. Professor Helmut Kessels, for example. The Netherlands Brain Foundation recently awarded €555,000 to its new study, which investigates how the brain’s natural defense mechanism against Alzheimer’s can be activated in an active learning brain.
Helmut Kessels, project leader of the aforementioned research and professor at the University of Amsterdam, has been researching for years exactly how Alzheimer’s disease works in the brain. Every day, 66 people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s by their doctor.
Observations have shown for years that an actively learning brain is less susceptible to developing Alzheimer’s disease and he has recently been able to prove with scientific research. Kessels hopes to find ways to influence this through research into the underlying biological mechanisms for this in the brain. His goal? To be able to inhibit or even prevent Alzheimer’s in the future.
Personal motivation
Kessels has personal motivation to want to stop Alzheimer’s: “My father had a form of dementia and I have seen many people in the nursing home. That is terrible. You see people lose their self-esteem, their control over their own behavior and emotions. the worst that can happen to you. It is degrading. That motivates me to find a solution. Behavioral therapy that keeps the brain fit and postpones Alzheimer’s is, in addition to hopeful, cheap and without side effects.”
Medicines and Behavioral Therapy
“I think it’s important that my research benefits society,” Kessels said earlier in an interview with ZonMw. “If we know which process in the brain is being attacked by Alzheimer’s and how we can make it resistant, I believe that in the future we can develop drugs and behavioral therapy that can slow down the process.”
In any case, Kessels’ research is promising. Alzheimer’s is characterized by the presence of plaques in the brain. These plaques contain a build-up of protein (beta-amyloid). This protein causes memory problems in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, among other things, because it affects the connections between nerve cells – the so-called synapses. This slowly disables various functions, such as memory storage. Once the synapse is damaged, it is permanently broken. Because it is not entirely clear how this protein affects the synapses, Kessels’ research does not focus on how the degradation process works, but on the search for a way to make nerve cells insensitive to this devastating protein. If the synapses can become resistant to the protein and do not break down, Alzheimer’s can be postponed or perhaps even prevented.
Making synapses resilient
Synapses can get stronger or weaker. When you learn something new, they get stronger. Kessels and his team know exactly which substances are released when you learn something and those ‘learning substances’ are used to test whether living brain tissue can be made resistant to Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s drug?
The research team is therefore testing which substances best protect against Alzheimer’s. In the long run, these substances could perhaps be incorporated into a medicine. But a follow-up study can also look into which behavior releases this substance, so that we may be able to make the brain Alzheimer’s resistant through learned behaviour. “Once we know exactly how this process works, we can also look at how to activate the natural protective mechanism in people who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s,” says Kessels.
Keep body and brain fit
Kessels’ research is therefore promising. But much more research, and money, is needed to prevent Alzheimer’s. The contribution of the Brain Foundation is therefore more than welcome. The grant will be used, among other things, for laboratory studies and the acquisition and analysis of brain tissue. “There is currently no therapy available or in sight that can effectively combat Alzheimer’s disease,” said Koko Beers, spokesperson for the Brain Foundation. “In order to come up with effective therapies in the future, it is essential that we understand how Alzheimer’s disease is caused and why some people are, and others are not, susceptible to developing it. We are funding the research because the “Researchers are looking at which mechanisms and factors play a role in protecting the brain. In the future, this knowledge could be important for developing therapies that can delay or delay Alzheimer’s.”
The researchers are sharing the findings with Alzheimer’s scientists, clinicians and behavioral psychologists to put the results into practice as quickly and efficiently as possible. The acquired knowledge and findings are also shared with healthcare institutions, informal caregivers and the general public to convey the scientifically substantiated message that an active learning brain can delay and delay Alzheimer’s disease.
Until a solution for Alzheimer’s is actually on the market, Kessels recommends doing everything you can to keep the body and brain fit. “Discover new places, meet new people and get physical exercise. After all, we know that people with an active lifestyle get Alzheimer’s on average later in life.”
In the TV show ‘Care about your brain’, which was broadcast on NPO1 on March 27, 2019, attention was drawn to the importance of brain research. Bart Chabot spoke in this program with Helmut Kessels about his research. Watch the snippet below:
Continue to train the brain yourself? Seven tips from the Brain Foundation to keep your brain vital.
This research was made possible in part by…
The grant from the Brain Foundation comes from the Bomers Marres Fund (€370,000) and the Van Der Meulen-Van Son Fund (€185,000). Two funds specially set up from bequests to fund Alzheimer’s research. Helmut Kessels’ research was therefore made possible in part because Ine Bomers-Marres and Bob Bomers donated part of their estate for research into dementia. Not so surprising that they considered this an important goal, because Ine was a psychotherapist and Bob a neurologist. So they have been working on the brain professionally for a long time. Unfortunately, they also both suffered from dementia. .
This article was produced in collaboration with the Brain Foundation. .
