Alzheimer’s disease •

Alzheimer’s Might be Cured with THC Treatment

July 3, 2016 By James Faulkner Leave a Comment

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Alzheimer’s Might be Cured with THC Treatment

Scientists still continue to investigate if the THC treatment can help against Alzheimer’s Disease.

Recently, a team of scientist from the Salk Institute has stated that Alzheimer’s can indeed be cured using a THC treatment.

As surprisingly as this statement might seem, the team from Salk Institute did indeed manage to find a connection between amyloid plaques, inflammation and THC, a compound found inside marijuana.

In the last two decades, Alzheimer’s has turned into an infamous villains of all times, claiming lives after lived. Despite their best efforts, scientists have been unable to find a reasonable answer to the question: “how do we cure Alzheimer’s?”

As of late, thanks to a riveting discovery, scientists may be closer to cracking this case. According to the team’s paper, which was published in the Aging and Mechanisms of Disease Journal, curing Alzheimer’s might be possible using a THC treatment.

In their lab experiments, the researchers have observed that the beta amyloid plaque can be removed by using an endocannabinoids-based solution.

As we are aware of, Alzheimer’s can also be described as a lack of signaling between our brain’s neurons. More specifically, the infamous beta amyloid plaques actively block out the neurons, making communication impossible.

So, where does this THC treatment come in? The scientists have determined that endocannabinoids, a substance which belongs to the same family of compounds as THC, can reactivate the blocked neurons. By activating the THC receivers found in the neuron’s nerve cell, the compound can, potentially, prevent neurons from dying.

This sounds good on paper, but what happens out of the lab? We must understand that this approach is highly experimental, meaning that there are still unanswered questions. For instance, if such a treatment is devised, how will it passed the blood-brain barrier?

Another good question involving this THC treatment is: what are its long-term effects? As we can see, the scientists have many obstacles to pass before they can start testing out this treatment.

If the THC treatment hypothesis still stands after additional lab testing, then it will, no doubt change the way we think about this disease. Furthermore, using the compound found inside marijuana for medicinal purposes, isn’t exactly a new approach, but it has proven effective in the past.

As a parting note, we should add that this new THC treatment still needs more testing and retesting before it can be put to use.

Photo credits: Pixabay

NIH gives grant of USD 45 million for Alzheimer’s research

September 20, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

In a bid to make the treatment of Alzheimer’s more advanced and available for the people, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced grants of about $45 million for research to find therapies for the disease.

Alzheimer’s, a progressive brain disease, is the sixth leading cause of deaths in the USA, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

The funding includes $40 million from the Office of the NIH Director, Francis Collins. Additional funding will come from the National Institute on Aging.

“As many as 5 million Americans face the challenge of Alzheimer’s disease, which robs them of their memories, their independence and ultimately, their lives,” Collins said in a statement. “We are determined, even in a time of constrained fiscal resources, to capitalize on exciting scientific opportunities to advance understanding of Alzheimer’s biology and find effective therapies as quickly as possible.”

The funding aims at aiding clinical trials and scientific researchers in the field.

One of the projects that the funding will support is the Alzheimer’s Prevention Initiative APOE4 Trial with the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute. This five-year trial aims at testing an anti-amyloid drug in cognitively healthy adults between age group 60-75. These age group people are at increased risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s.

“Once again, we are extremely grateful to the NIH for the opportunity to help accelerate the evaluation of treatments to prevent the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s and find ones that work as soon as possible,” said Eric Reiman, executive director of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute, in a statement. “This trial will allow us to extend our work to individuals at greatest risk at older ages.”

According to Alzheimer’s Association, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia will grow as the U.S. population of those age 65 and older increases

Omega-3 fish oil may cut alcohol-related dementia risk

September 9, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

Scientists have uncovered another health benefit of omega-3 fish oil. According to a new study, this enriched oil may help protect against alcohol-related dementia.

The long-term use of alcohol increases the risk of dementia, scientists say.

Small amounts of alcohol are likely to make brain cells more fit. Alcohol in moderate amounts stresses cells and thus toughens them up to cope with major stresses down the road that could cause dementia. However, too much alcohol overwhelms the cells, leading to inflammation and cell death.

Study

Researchers at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine carried study on brain cells of rats exposed to high levels of alcohol.

An earlier analysis by Michael A Collins and colleague Edward J Neafsey, which pooled the results of 143 studies, found that moderate social drinking may reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment. Notably, moderate drinking is defined as a maximum of two drinks per day for men and 1 drink per day for women.

Collins and colleagues exposed cultures of adult rat brain cells to amounts of alcohol equivalent to more than four times the legal limit for driving in the US. These cell cultures were compared with cultures of brain cells exposed to the same high levels of alcohol, plus a compound found in fish oil called omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Findings

There was about 90 percent less neuroinflammation and neuronal death in the brain cells exposed to DHA and alcohol than in the cells exposed to alcohol alone.

“Fish oil has the potential of helping preserve brain integrity in abusers. At the very least, it wouldn’t hurt them,” Collins said.

Down syndrome to decode Alzheimer’s disease, say scientists

September 7, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

Alzheimer’s are evident as the most common disease among the elderly people. In a significant study, scientists have discovered a link between Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s, saying that understanding the former may help in decoding the latter.

This has been known for decades that people with Down syndrome were at increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, but some researchers now believe that understanding the connection between the two conditions might help us unravel the Alzheimer’s puzzle and point towards therapies that might slow, or even halt, the dreaded disease.

“It’s a tantalizing and provocative question: Do people with Down syndrome hold the key to the mystery of Alzheimer’s development?” Dr. Brian Skotko, co-director of the Down Syndrome Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said while adding, “And what can we learn from those with Down syndrome that will benefit the rest of the population?”

Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 26 million people worldwide. It is predicted to skyrocket as boomers age — nearly 106 million people are projected to have the disease by 2050.

Researchers say, not only do more people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer’s, but they also develop it at a much younger age. By age 40, a full 40 percent of people with Down syndrome will develop the disease, and by age 50 that rises to 50 percent.

While not everyone with Down syndrome develops dementia, all develop changes in their brains that are found in Alzheimer’s patients, scientists stressed.

“We’ve learned that prevention and treatment in the earliest stages is probably our best way to battle this disease,” Lemere said.

“And we know that everybody with Down syndrome will eventually develop Alzheimer’s disease – or at least the changes in the brain. So we know that this is now another population where we can perhaps go in and test therapies very early in the disease as a prevention,” she added.

Protein that leads you to Alzheimer’s discovered

September 5, 2013 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

US scientists have found a stress-related protein that is responsible for accelerating Alzheimer’s disease.

These proteins are genetically linked to depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders leading to Alzheimer‘s disease, the study has found.

Researchers at the University of South Florida found when the stress-related protein FKBP51 partners with another protein known as Hsp90 it prevents the clearance from the brain of the toxic tau protein associated with Alzheimer‘s disease.

Hsp90 is a chaperone protein, which supervises the activity of tau inside nerve cells. Chaperone proteins typically help ensure that tau proteins are properly folded to maintain the healthy structure of nerve cells.

The stress-related protein partners with Hsp90 to make tau more deadly to the brain cells involved in memory formation, scientists said.

However, as FKBP51 levels increases with age, they usurp Hsp90’s beneficial effect to promote tau toxicity.

“We found that FKB51 commandeers Hsp90 to create an environment that prevents the removal of tau and makes it more toxic,” said the study’s principal investigator Chad Dickey, associate professor of molecular medicine at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer‘s Institute.

Under normal circumstances, tau helps make up the skeleton of our brain cells.

The study was done using test tube experiments, mice genetically engineered to produce abnormal tau protein like that accumulated in the brains of people with Alzheimer‘s disease, and post-mortem human Alzheimer‘s brain tissue.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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