Scientists have announced several exciting developments in Alzheimer’s research in the last few weeks that will interest everyone in San Diego home care. Since our last Alzheimer’s research update in June 2019, researchers have identified new proteins in the brain, newly implicated genes, and promising new drug candidates. As many Alzheimer’s caregivers in San Diego know, amyloid plaque has long been the focus of study and attack. The most recent research has found that tau, another brain protein, is a more likely target. Alzheimer’s patients in home care in San Diego and their companion caregivers can find hope in some of these latest advancements from the ScienceDaily.com website:
- “Can lithium halt progression of Alzheimer’s disease?”
- “In a new study, a team of researchers has shown that, when given in a formulation that facilitates passage to the brain, lithium in doses up to 400 times lower than what is currently being prescribed for mood disorders is capable of both halting signs of advanced Alzheimer’s pathology and of recovering lost cognitive abilities.”
- “Alzheimer ‘tau’ protein far surpasses amyloid in predicting toll on brain tissue”
- From UCSF – “The results support researchers’ growing recognition that tau drives brain degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease more directly than amyloid protein, and at the same time demonstrates the potential of recently developed tau-based PET (positron emission tomography) brain imaging technology to accelerate Alzheimer’s clinical trials and improve individualized patient care.”
- “Possible Alzheimer’s breakthrough suggested: a previously unknown gene and associated protein which could potentially be suppressed to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s disease.”
- “Researchers at the Case Western University School of Medicine say they have identified a previously unknown gene and associated protein which could potentially be suppressed to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s disease. “Based on the data we have, this protein can be an unrecognized new risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD),” said Xinglong Wang, an associate professor of pathology at the School of Medicine. “We also see this as a potential novel therapeutic target for this devastating disease.”
- “Alzheimer’s drug candidates reverse broader aging, Salk Institute study shows.”
- “In mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, the investigational drug candidates known as CMS121 and J147 improve memory and slow the degeneration of brain cells. Now, researchers have shown how these compounds can also slow aging in healthy older mice, blocking the damage to brain cells that normally occurs during aging and restoring the levels of specific molecules to those seen in younger brains.”
- “Alzheimer’s study shows promise in protecting brain from tau, as researchers discover impact of MSUT2 gene and binding protein, offering others a starting point for new therapeutics.”
- “In the wake of recent disappointments over clinical trials targeting amyloid plaque build-up in Alzheimer’s disease, researchers are focusing more attention on misfolded tau protein, another culprit in brain diseases that cause dementia. New research published in Science Translational Medicine finds that targeting abnormal tau through the suppression of a gene called MSUT2 (mammalian suppressor of tauopathy 2) shows promise.”
