Dementia inhibitors
3. Drink coffee
Debating a second cup of coffee? Drink up! According to a recent study, caffeine reversed memory impairment in mice bred to develop Alzheimer's disease. When the mice were given the equivalent of five 8-ounce cups of coffee a day, researchers reported a 50 per cent reduction in beta amyloid, the plaque-forming protein linked to Alzheimer's disease, found in the blood and in the brain.
After running a series of tests, researchers found that the mice's memories were equal to normal-aged mice without dementia. The researchers hope to begin human trials soon.
The study was published in the July 2009 issue of Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and led by a team of University of South Florida researchers at the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
4. Alzheimer's genes that detect risk and age of onset
Two recent studies linked the TOMM40 gene to the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The first study, presented at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Vienna, found that pinpointing TOMM40 can help predict the risk of developing AD as well as the age of onset, within a five-to-seven-year window, in people aged 60 and older.
TOMM40 is linked to another gene, the ApoE, which is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. According to researcher Allen Roses of Duke University's Deane Drug Discovery Institute, the two genes account for 85 to 90 per cent of the genetic effect of AD.
Meanwhile, the second study shows that people with Alzheimer's disease are twice as likely to have the TOMM40 gene than those without AD and that the mutated gene increases the likelihood of dementia, especially when other risk factors are present, such as the ApoE-4 gene.
The latter study was conducted by Dr. Steven Potkin at the University of California, Irvine and published in the August 2009 issue of PLos One.
5. Dementia inhibitors
A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has identified a new class of molecules that can block the formation of protein-clumping tau fibrils, which contribute to dementia.
In tests, the drug-like inhibitors stopped the accumulation of the tau protein fibrils, which become insoluble deposits in the brain nerve cells and contribute to a host of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Although more testing is needed, researchers hope that the discovery of the chemical series ATPZ may mean candidacy for a potential new drug to combat the disease.
The Penn Medicine and National Institutes of Health Genomics Center study was published in the July 2009 issue of the journal Biochemistry.
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