This article highlights researchers, from the University of Tokyo, who injected mice, with Alzheimer's Disease, with a small, light-activated molecule. This molecule eliminates clumps of amyloid proteins, found in Alzheimer's Disease. Alzheimer's, ultimately, destroys neurons and their connections in parts of the brain involved with memory and later affects the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for language, behavior and reasoning. This article talks more about what Alzheimer's Disease does to the brain. Researchers, then, shined a light, using a probe, into their brains, for 30 minutes, each day, for one week. The chemical analysis of the brain tissue showed that there was a significant reduction of the amyloid protein. Human brains have also been donated to support this research in the hopes of using it on live patients, one day.
This would be a very cool treatment, I wonder if it would affect the other amyloid proteins found in the body.
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