Experimental Drug Stops Toxic Alzheimer Protein from Accumulating in Brain
Yousef Al-Abed, PhD, designs medicines like an artful tailor, stitching pieces of molecules together to create novel compounds that may ultimately save lives. And his latest work has paid off in laboratory studies that could pay major dividends in staving off Alzheimers disease.
"Science flourishes in an environment that fosters communication, and one of the great things about the YouTube channel is that it gives us a rapid mechanism for communicating with physicians and caregivers who suspect that their patients or loved ones may suffer from one of these illnesses," says Bruce Miller, MD, director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. "All of the dementias–including Alzheimer's disease, Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Huntington’s disease and others–share common features. Our goal is to increase awareness of the earliest signs of these diseases, so they can be accurately diagnosed, and patients can get into clinical trials sooner. We believe that early intervention with novel therapies will be key to stalling and halting these diseases."
As people live longer and longer, this becomes the main question, and one that must be answered. Through proper long-term care planning, a person can legally and ethically protect their assets so that they don't outlive them and can pass them on as an inheritance.
New York, NY (Vocus/PRWEB ) April 10, 2008 — They are too young to forget the faces of loved ones. They are too young for missed appointments and shattered memories. They are too young for Alzheimer's disease. But maybe not. While Alzheimer's has long been associated with old age, new evidence is mounting that the disease can and does appear in mid-life, though it is rare.
This free educational forum for family caregivers will address the issues facing a family caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's Disease. A panel of experts will discuss various issues facing those assuming the role of the caregiver and how to empower and protect yourself and your loved one.
The forum will take place at the Lake San Marcos Resort Conference Center at 1025 La Bonita Drive in San Marcos, CA 92078 from 8:30am to 12:30pm on Thursday, July 24th, 2008. Continental breakfast will be served at 8:30am.
“Visually evaluating the atrophy of the hippocampus is not only difficult and prone to subjectivity, it is time-consuming,” explained the study’s lead author, Olivier Colliot, Ph.D, from the Cognitive Neuroscience and Brain Imaging Laboratory in Paris, France. “As a result, it hasn’t become part of clinical routine.”
Dr. Al-Abed has evidence that the molecule changes the assembly of amyloid and protects against it forming plaques. The researchers also know that inflammation is a characteristic feature of amyloid deposition and found that microglial activation was virtually gone in the brains of the lab models. Microglial activation is a measure of inflammation in the brain. It also doesn’t interfere with the normal processing of amyloid.
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