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Research Break through from University of Sydney? |
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Recent claims by Professor J Gotz of a breakthrough in research into Alzheimer's disease will lead directly to a new treatment may well be a little premature and hyped, but never the less are potentially important. Their study claims to show how two key proteins interact to trigger the brain degeneration known as Alzheimer's. Such studies may show the link between amyloid deposition and neurofibrillary tangles (Tau protein). This is the conundrum which has yet to be solved since both abnormalities are found in a variety of diseases, but their relationship and interaction are not fully known. However it is a long way between genetically modified mice and man. There may well be many years of research to progress this. Even if medications that utilised this knowledge where immediately available it would be at least 5 years, proably more, that prescription medication could be contemplated. It must be noted that the publication source for all the excitement is unknown (as far as I could see) so we have no real ability to comment beyound what thier group have already published. For example I see recent commentary by Eckert A, Schulz KL, Rhein V, Götz J. Mol Neurobiol. 2010 Jun;41(2-3):107-14. Epub 2010 Mar 9. Convergence of amyloid-beta and tau pathologies on mitochondria in vivo. If the link is proven to be though Mitochondrial dysfunction this would be significant as there is a school of thought that says the problem in Alzheimer's is with the mitochondria, the power house of the cell. Another interesting link is that Dimebon is thought to work (if it does work, yet to be disporven!) through mitochondrial mechanisms. Phil Wood
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Last Updated on Monday, 26 July 2010 16:40 |
