Scientist Have Discovered Breakthrough to Stop Alzheimer in Earliest Stages

Do you have family members with Alzheimer, here is a good news on how drugs have been developed to stop it at early stage.

 

Scientists at Cambridge University have discovered the key to stopping Alzheimer’s disease in its earliest stages.The breakthrough paves the way for a ‘statin-like’ drug that could be taken by millions to prevent dementia.

 

The researchers have found a naturally occurring molecule that can slow the formation of plaques in the brain. Amyloid plaques are closely associated with declining memory and other Alzheimer’s symptoms.

 

The discovery raises the prospect of a treatment which could be routinely taken in middle age to stop dementia. It could even result in a pill that could be used to treat dementia in the same way that statins are used to prevent heart disease today.

Lead author Dr Samuel Cohen told the Daily Mail : ‘This is the starting point for finding a drug that stops Alzheimer’s disease in its tracks. It might be used when the first symptoms appear. But another potential approach is that people would take it as a preventative drug.’

 

But Dr Cohen said many similar proteins may be more suited for use as a drug.

 

‘There may well be lots of other molecules like this – we just have not been looking until now because it was not clear what to look for,’ he said. If a suitable molecule is discovered, it could open the way to a drug that can wipe out the damaging plaques as soon as they start to appear.

 

Dr Cohen said: ‘People could take them in their 60s to stop these proteins grouping together, well before the symptoms appear, which would reduce the risk of developing the devastating effects of this disease.’

 

The study was welcomed last night by health charities who said it promised to reduce the ‘catastrophic effect’ of dementia.

 

Dr Laura Phipps of Alzheimer’s Research UK said: ‘This study has revealed clues to how to block one important chain of events in the disease.

 

The research, published in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, is the first to reveal how the specific molecule can slow the formation of plaques in the brain.

 

Source: Mail online.