https://news.ubc.ca/2017/10/31/alzheimers-disease-might-be-a-whole-body-problem/
Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia, has long been assumed to originate in the brain but new research indicates that it could be triggered by breakdowns elsewhere in the body.
The findings, published today in Molecular Psychiatry [DOI: 10.1038/mp.2017.204] [DX], offer hope that future drug therapies might be able to stop or slow the disease without acting directly on the brain, which is a complex, sensitive and often hard-to-reach target. Instead, such drugs could target the kidney or liver, ridding the blood of a toxic protein [amyloid-β protein] before it ever reaches the brain.
"Alzheimer's disease is clearly a disease of the brain, but our research shows that we need to pay attention to the whole body to understand where it comes from, and how to stop it," said Dr. Weihong Song, UBC psychiatry professor.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @04:21PM (4 children)
https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-014-0169-0 [biomedcentral.com]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 03 2017, @08:25PM (3 children)
That wouldn't be the first time that has happened in the field of medicine.
There are more than a few very common diseases where diagnosis is just wrong. [cnn.com]
Yet these guys write that is if recognizing the misdiagnosis is somehow a bad thing.
Behavioral based diagnosis is a tricky business at best. Deciding that Neurodegeneration is in progress really says nothing about the source. If AD is defined as the presence of Aβ accumulation, AND Aβ accumulation is missing, then what would be the point of continuing to treat Aβ accumulation?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @10:12PM
There doesn't seem to be any point of continuing to treat Aβ accumulation... that is the point.
(Score: 2) by TheLink on Saturday November 04 2017, @08:55AM
I doubt it'll work for everybody (lots of other causes for dementia) but it may work for lot of people. After all many people have type 2 diabetes, so while not all dementia might be "type 3 diabetes" a large percentage might be:
https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/clinical-trials/study-nasal-insulin-fight-forgetfulness-sniff [nih.gov]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260944/ [nih.gov]
http://www.alzforum.org/therapeutics/nasal-insulin [alzforum.org]
I don't recommend you DIY and bypass professional medical treatment, but hey if you're getting desperate the side effects may not be bad enough for you:
http://www.lostfalco.com/intranasal-insulin/ [lostfalco.com]
(Score: 1) by rylyeh on Saturday November 04 2017, @05:39PM
Amyloid-β is definatley not even the biggest problem: Gene variant linked to Alzheimer’s disease is a triple threat [sciencenews.org]
Based on the above research - I think these 'new treatments' will prove to be ineffective.
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."