of mice and men

OF MICE AND MEN
for those of us who follow alzheimers disease
we know that doing research on mice
is not like doing research on men

many times over the last several years have i seen
research that seems to work well in mice
but it doesnt in men

mice and men arent the same

that said the mice are used frequently for research
since
they are easily manipulated genetically to test
research theories

eg
there are mice that get alzheimers disease
100% of the time
they get those awful plaques and tangles just like human
alzheimers patients do
why
well researchers splice the dominant gene for alzheimers into them
so they all get the disease

seems orwellian or something
super gmos maybe

so now they have a model to test drugs on
and
maybe see the results fairly quickly

knowing if it works it might work in humans
but with no guarantee
plus
its cheaper than doing human studies

now recently i noticed in social media articles
and news articles like this one
that many of you sent to me
thanks for the info
about
stanford finding a cure for alzheimers disease
in mice it was


heres the story
inside the brain are cells called microglia
they clean up the garbage in the brain that accumulates
like the beta amyloid and tau proteins that accumulate
to form tangles and plaques
the hallmark of alzheimers disease

when we are young we make a lot of these microglia
when we get old we produce a protein
called ep2 that prevents the microglia from doing their
jobs
so as we age we have a greater chance of getting the disease

stopping this ep2 production my slow down the process
or reverse it

so in these mice
they put in a gene that stopped ep2 production
thus allowing microglia to work and do their job
the mice either didnt get alzheimers or the alzheimers
was reversed

they also gave a drug that stops ep2 production in
older alzheimers rats or mice
they got better

exciting if these results transfer to humans
take a drug to stop ep2 production
thus
allowing the microglia to do their job
we then dont get alzheimers disease

think new york city without any garbage pick up
or police protection
for weeks
what a mess that would be
add back the garbage pick up and the cops
the city returns back to normal
of course the mice wouldnt be as happy

so yes its exciting
but
ive learned to not be too excited when i read stuff
now after 4+ years following alzheimers research

that said
if someone like a stanford researcher called me today
and
said we have some ep2 inhibitors to take
you want some
i would say
im all in

the organicgreen doctor