According to Science Daily, scientists at Gladstone institute found a further linkage between Alzheimer's disease and an ApoE protein. It is still unclear to the exact nature of how this protein works but it is found that at younger ages it helps to reduce the build up of amyloid-beta. This build up is found in most Alzheimer's patients, which scientists believe is a possible cause of this disease. The way ApoE works is at a young age the protein helps to clear away the amyloid-beta, but as age increases so does the protein level. With the higher level of protein amyloid-beta accumulated. It is believed that at a younger age there is less of this protein produced which allows it to work more efficiently. The findings suggest that by reducing the amount of protein produced at an older age it may still be able to lower amyloid-beta which then may combat Alzheimer's disease.
This is an amazing discovery, Alzheimer's disease is such a nasty disease and takes loved ones from families and making them unable to remember the people they love or the wonderfully life's they lived. I hope this study really leads to an advancement towards new treatments or possibly a cure.
ReplyDeletePeople should be aware that there is another side to this story. Several labs including my own have shown that one explanation for the link between increased risk of AD and the APOE4 allele is insufficient levels of apoE protein. Recently, work done by G. Landreth’s lab at Case Western showed that mice treated with a drug (bexarotene) boosted apoE protein levels and reversed much of the AD pathology/cognitive deficits in these mice. People can read a more in depth discussion of this story on the alzforum website (review of 2012 apoE keystone symposia).
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