the answer
time will tell
after the research is moved to humans
warning it make take a while to get the research done
in the theory of alzheimers amyloid for some reason starts to accumulate in the brain causing brain cells to die
as these cells die the protein tau which provides structure to the brain cells get damaged and start to unwind
this tau protein unwinds and forms tangles which get deposited in the brain leading to brain cell damage
amyloid deposition starts the alzheimers disease process then the tau tangles finishes the job
amyloid is the match that starts the fire and tau is the forest fire that burns through the brain
then to the virus
you can take a virus
its covered with a coat of proteins that surrounds all the dna and genes of the virus
scientist can remove all the dna and the genes leaving just this shell of proteins
they can add tau protein to this shell of proteins
they are called virus like particles or vlps
these are used to induce antibodies against the tau as the virus coat infects the brain
by doing this these anti tau antibodies attach to the tau and then the tau can be removed from the brain
the scientists have made mice that develop alzheimers disease
i always wondered about that how an alzheimers mouse would survive in the wild
wandering around all lost and all
not well i would think
so
at the university of new mexico scientists as described in this article took that virus shell covered with tau protein and infected these alzheimers mice with the virus
the virus induced a lot of anti tau antibodies and removed the tau from the mices brain
the mice had mris done of the brain
now i cant really picture how they got a mice to let them do an mri on them
do they have this mice sized mri or do they use a regular human sized one
the mice that were treated showed improvement in their memory compared to those not treated
the mice that were treated showed that the brain had less shrinkage especially in the hippocampus where alzheimers starts
remember 100% of these alzheimers mice will get alzheimers
except
maybe those who are treated with the virus infection
so how does this get to humans
well
it will take millions and millions of dollars to get there
from
the federal government
maybe the alzheimers association
maybe some drug company willing to plop down millions and millions
the pay off if it works for a drug company will be in the billions
the pay off for alzheimers patients will be a new treatment for alzheimers
the pay off for society is that it will save millions and millions of health care dollars
and
much heartache for thousands of us families
i may too late for this treatment if it became available
since it can take 10 years or so for it to be completely studied
but
as one who has followed mouse alzheimers studies over the last almost 9 years
what works in a mouse
well
many times it dont work in humans
this technique has been successful in treating many cancers
however
this one does seem promising though for treating alzheimers
of mice and men
we just need an answer to how to treat this awful disease
the organicgreen doctor
No comments:
Post a Comment