Alzheimer’s Cure

As many people know Alzheimer disease is horrible illness that affects the brain and usually effects older people. It destroys a person’s memory and then takes their life. It’s like having your mind wiped but far worse than the “Men in Black” scenario. A person may forget how to cloth themselves or even worse get totally lost. Yet this same person may remember scenes from their childhood. Why? Well the brain’s short-term memory is centred in just one place however the brain’s long-term memory is situated all around the brain. Therefore if the brain degenerates in the place where the short-term memory is, it gradually destroys this type of memory. Although even if it degenerates in areas of long-term memory in the brain it does not wipe it out since it is based all around the brain. This disease has no cure and is said to be caused by protein plaques in the brain. However there is good news, since a nasal spray is being developed which could clear the plaques from the brain and thus, cure the disease. This nasal spray looks very hopeful and is going to be tested in humans in 2006.

This spray works by stimulating brain cells called microglia to “eat” the protein plaques. When the spray was tested on mice it reduced the protein plaques by 83%. However like other previous Alzheimer vaccines the spray caused inflammation, which, can be potentially dangerous. Ironically however, the researchers found it was the inflammation, which triggered off the microglia to eat the plaques in the first place.

Fortunately none of my family or relatives has Alzheimer’s however there are friends of my parents, which have the disease. So this development is a great thing for them since there is a reasonable chance they could be cured in the future, it also gives hope to the people who look after Alzheimer suffers and hope is quite often the only thing which keeps people going.

What do you think about this disease or/and this medical development?

Email: rjmm.dodd@btopenworld.com

By Robert Dodd