While we understand more about Alzheimer’s today than ever before, there’s still much we don’t know. As there are no vaccines or preventative measures for Alzheimer’s – a disease that affects 50 million worldwide – it’s been a race to figure out how best to treat it, starting with how to clear the build-up of defective beta-amyloid and tau proteins from a patient’s brain. More research is still needed to provide answers that can help prevent, slow, or cure the disease.
What we do know is that Alzheimer’s is becoming more prevalent by the day, as are the number of family caregivers providing unpaid care to a loved one with the disease. Alzheimer’s is a disease that impacts the entire family, from spouses to adult children, grandchildren, siblings, and friends.
Before delving into what’s new on the horizon for Alzheimer’s research, it’s important to understand what we know about the disease today:
- Alzheimer’s is associated with a sticky substance in the brain called beta-amyloid protein. When amyloid gets deposited in the brain, it interferes with the normal transmission of nerve cells and eventually leads to the early death of these cells.
- Another abnormal protein, called tau tangles, are thought to deprive the nerve cells in the brain of vital nutrients.
- Amyloid and tau tangles are considered hallmark symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
- The disease process starts in an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is normally involved in memory. That’s why memory loss is one of the first symptoms of the disease.
- There are several stages of Alzheimer’s, beginning with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
- The earlier stages of the disease involve memory loss and mild symptoms. Dementia occurs in the later stages of Alzheimer’s and involves the inability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing, cooking, dressing, and eating.
- Alzheimer’s is thought to begin in the brain 20-30 years before symptoms ever occur, so early diagnosis and treatment interventions are vital in slowing down or stopping the disease process all together.
New Diagnostic and Treatment Options for Alzheimer’s
Scientists say they are “cautiously hopeful” when it comes to developing effective, new treatments to delay the progression of Alzheimer’s. An increase in the level of knowledge and understanding of just how Alzheimer’s effects the brain may lead to promising new treatments and help short-circuit the disease process.
In the modern-day world of Alzheimer’s research, there are some exciting new possibilities. Two such new modes of treatment have never been used before for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). These include:
- Drugs that may help lower beta amyloid levels and others that work to untwist abnormal tau protein
- New drugs that help memory and vaccines that suppress the immune system
So far, none of these new drugs have been deemed the holy grail for a new Alzheimer’s cure. Many experts feel the answer to the puzzle will come in the form of a “cocktail” of sorts, with individualized treatment designed to address the many facets of the disease.
Treating Alzheimer’s by Targeting Amyloid Plaques
Because scientists understand the involvement of a sticky abnormal protein in the brain, called beta amyloid plaques, new studies are underway to take aim at interrupting the growth of these microscopic clumps. Beta amyloid interferes with normal nerve transmission, resulting in memory and thinking problems. Amyloid plaques are considered a hallmark of the disease.
Treating Alzheimer’s by Interrupting Tau Tangles
When the protein in the brain called “tau” ends up abnormally twisted, this is yet another abnormality occurring as a symptom of Alzheimer’s. This process causes a collapse of the system normally responsible for transporting nutrients to the brain cells.
Tau tangles interfere with the brain cells’ ability to receive vital nutrients, ultimately resulting in death of the neurons or brain cells.
Scientists are currently working on new vaccines and other types of drugs that may prevent tau from forming these abnormal tangles.
Treating Alzheimer’s by Reducing Inflammation in the Brain
Chronic low-level brain cell inflammation has been noted in people with Alzheimer’s.
Another new experimental treatment for AD involves finding a way to reduce the inflammation process.
New Alzheimer’s Treatment Fully Restores Memory Function
A team from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland have come up with a pretty promising solution; a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques – structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients.
Published in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes the technique as using a particular type of ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast, these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglial cells are basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s.
The team reports fully restoring the memory function of 75 percent of the mice they tested it on, with zero damage to the surrounding brain tissue. They found that the treated mice displayed improved performance in three memory tasks – a maze, a test to get them to recognize new objects, and one to get them to remember the places they should avoid.
“We’re extremely excited by this innovation of treating Alzheimer’s without using drug therapeutics,” one of the team, Jürgen Götz, said in a press release. “The word ‘breakthrough’ is often misused, but in this case, I think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach.” The team says they are currently underway with human trials.
In Conclusion
It is exciting to see what the future holds, where identifying your risk of developing Alzheimer’s may be as simple as an app on your phone that you can instruct to listen for warning signs in your speech.
As technology gets more advanced and more precise, scientists are making amazing progress in how we pinpoint disease. That deeper understanding is already benefitting Alzheimer’s research, and potentially a game-changer in diagnostics, in the years to come.
