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It May be Possible to Restore Memory Function in Alzheimer's, Preclinical Study Finds
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It may be possible to restore memory function in Alzheimer's, preclinical study finds
Research published today (Jan. 22) in the journal Brain reveals a new approach to Alzheimer's disease (AD) that may eventually make it possible to reverse memory loss, a hallmark of the disease in its late stages.
The team, led by University at Buffalo scientists, found that by focusing on gene changes caused by influences other than DNA sequences -- called epigenetics -- it was possible to reverse memory decline in an animal model of AD.
"In this paper, we have not only identified the epigenetic factors that contribute to the memory loss, we also found ways to temporarily reverse them in an animal model of AD," said senior author Zhen Yan, PhD, a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.
The research was conducted on mouse models carrying gene mutations for familial AD -- where more than one member of a family has the disease -- and on post-mortem brain tissues from AD patients.
Inhibition of EHMT1/2 rescues synaptic and cognitive functions for Alzheimer's disease (open, DOI: 10.1093/brain/awy354) (DX)
Early Prediction of Alzheimer's Progression: Blood Protein
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Early prediction of Alzheimer's progression: Blood protein
Years before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease manifest, the brain starts changing and neurons are slowly degraded. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH) and the University Hospital Tuebingen now show that a protein found in the blood can be used to precisely monitor disease progression long before first clinical signs appear. This blood marker offers new possibilities for testing therapies. The study was carried out in cooperation with an international research team and published in the journal Nature Medicine.
"The fact that there is still no effective treatment for Alzheimer's is partly because current therapies start much too late," says Mathias Jucker, a senior researcher at the DZNE's Tuebingen site and at the HIH. He headed the current study. In order to develop better treatments, scientists therefore need reliable methods to monitor and predict the course of the disease before symptoms such as memory changes occur. A blood test is better suited for this than e. g. expensive brain scans.
Recently, there was some progress in the development of such blood tests. Most of them are based on so-called amyloid proteins. In Alzheimer's disease, amyloid proteins accumulate in the brain and also occur in the blood. However, Jucker and his colleagues take a different approach. "Our blood test does not look at the amyloid, but at what it does in the brain, namely neurodegeneration. In other words, we look at the death of neurons," says Jucker.
Note: DZNE is: "Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen".
Serum neurofilament dynamics predicts neurodegeneration and clinical progression in presymptomatic Alzheimer's Disease (DOI: 10.1038/s41591-018-0304-3) (DX)
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 29 2019, @08:27PM (13 children)
They dissected so many goddamn mouse brains for this paper. Must've been fun.
From their graphs, the apparent success of BIX01294 of returning a degree of normalcy to brain behavior is pretty unambiguous, though it's pretty clear from the expression analysis they do that they aren't able to control all the genes expressed by the Alzheimer genes effectively, so they're not quite hitting the problem exactly at its root cause. And as they note, their test case mouse models don't exhibit all the patterns of human Alzheimer patients.
It all seems promising, but when you're affecting that much of how a genome is expressed, the risks of unintended consequences has to be pretty real. Given the early(asymptomatic) intervention nature of this treatment, I'm not sure what you'd do to make an ethical preliminary human trial.
"Hey we're gonna inject this stuff that affects your brain in a not-quite-entirely known way because you have high dementia risk factors in 30 years" is a tough sell.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @08:37PM (11 children)
Here is their title: "Inhibition of EHMT1/2 rescues synaptic and cognitive functions"
Where do they plot EHMT1/2 activity vs synaptic function and EHMT1/2 activity vs cognitive function?
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 29 2019, @08:47PM (10 children)
They don't. They plot genotype against EHMT1/2 and against methylyzation, which they treat as a proxy measure of Alzheimer's progression.
Then they later cast genotype+treatement/control groups against synaptic response to stimulus. Whether that adequately represents function is a tough question. Certainly cognitive function isn't tested at all, though they make the case for its relevance in the discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:02PM (6 children)
Well if a paper is published that doesn't even contain the headline claim, I think it is pretty safe to ignore it. There is no reason they couldn't measure "cognitive function" and then sacrifice the mice and measure "EHMT1/2 activity" in their brains. Instead they seem to have measured these things in different groups of mice.
In fact, not doing what their headline implies they did means these researchers are in breach of federal law. When I did animal research I signed a document stating I understood the law requires researchers to attempt to reduce animal numbers and minimize suffering.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:52PM (4 children)
I mean, sure, just focus on the two word summary, and definitely ignore the context that establishes what they were doing and how it's genuinely relevant to establishing what the headline says. I mean a headline is a fully in-depth analysis, not some kind of summary of a summary, right?
Definitely insist on two variables being directly plotted against each other, even when the experiment design doesn't allow for that without intermediate inference.
That's totally good science, and not hard-headed pedantry at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @10:00PM (3 children)
There is nothing difficult about choosing a headline claim that reflects the evidence in the paper. Are you suggesting this is too difficult a task for medical researchers?
There is also zero (legitimate) reason not to do biochem and behavior using the same mice. In fact it is *illegal* not to do that. Why did they chose to use an illegal "experimental design"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @10:07PM
Same AC.
I just thought of a name for this behavior: The "White wall of scilence"*
Researchers who are bought into and dependent on the system of crappy research refuse to out each other. Not even for blatant disregard for what most people would expect are basic scientific and/or ethical standards like having the title say what you actually did rather than wish you did.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday January 29 2019, @10:27PM (1 child)
Alright, the snark was unfair, as you're too fucking dumb to get it.
A headline is not a strict statement of a single observed fact. You're both dumb and wrong to demand it do so
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @10:32PM
This doesn't have anything to do with a headline correctly describing what is in the paper, what are you talking about?
Amazingly, your answer seems to be: "Yes, it really is too difficult for medical researchers to choose a headline that accurately describes what they did".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @11:29PM
Yeah, right. Measuring "cognitive function" only works for Algernon.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:06PM (2 children)
When your patient population is hopeless, miserable and desperate, they'll let you try just about anything on them.
Witness: the continued research into ECT for depression...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:27PM (1 child)
Yes. But 30 years before initial symptoms the patients aren't seeing any symptoms.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:58PM
True, if the treatment has to be administered pre-symptoms, it's going to be a hard sell - sort of like vaccination is becoming.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 30 2019, @02:35AM
And pay money. While the ethics of such a treatment is relatively difficult, it's nothing compared to the ethics of not experimenting on humans. One way puts dozens to hundreds of peoples' lives at risk. The other way puts billions of peoples' lives at risk.
Of course, we could just let Chinese researchers do it with the current developing world's relaxed attitude towards ethics and feel a little guilty on the side.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:02PM (1 child)
Anybody catch the news blurb that Alzheimers' may be caused by ingress of dental bacteria through bleeding gums?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 29 2019, @11:26PM
yeah it's on the pipelines : https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2019/01/25/a-new-infectious-mechanism-for-alzheimers [sciencemag.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:28PM (2 children)
Developments that reverse Alzheimers can only be a good thing to help people suffering from . . . what were we talking about again? And who are you?
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 29 2019, @09:55PM (1 child)
Just sign here, please.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday January 30 2019, @04:49PM
Your evil plan will be foiled because they can't remember their own name, or how to write.