GREETINGS everyone. Well, I just heard someone complain that the only thing people talk about now is sports and politics and I’m afraid I must agree. But there are other important things going on, and while I was leafing through the medical file I found some important breakthroughs concerning a disease that has probably touched most of our lives: Alzheimer’s.

Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Their findings show that use of a drug in mice quickly reverses the pathological, cognitive and memory deficits caused by the onset of Alzheimer’s. The drug bexarotene just may have the potential to help the roughly 5.4 million Americans suffering from the progressive brain disease (which is expected to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050).

Bexarotene was approved as a cancer treatment by the FDA more than a decade ago. The recent experiments explored whether it might also be used to help patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and the results were more than promising.

Alzheimer’s disease arises in large part from the body’s inability to clear naturally-occurring amyloid beta from the brain. Within six hours of administering bexarotene to mice, amyloid levels fell by 25 percent and the effect lasted as long as three days. The treatment also initiated rapid improvement in many behaviors in these mice which exhibit the classic symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

One example of improved behaviors involved the nesting instinct. When Alzheimer’s-diseased mice encountered material suited for nesting (tissue paper in the experiment) they did nothing to create a space to nest which implied they had lost the ability to associate the tissue paper with the opportunity to nest. Just 72 hours after the bexarotene treatment, however, the mice began to use the paper to make nests. Administration of the drug also improved the ability of the mice to sense and respond to odors.

This study identifies a link between the primary genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and a potential therapy to address it. The Case Western Reserve researchers hope to speed the transition to clinical trials of the drug in humans.

And in a separate study, group of Canadian researchers discovered that slowing or preventing the development of Alzheimer’s disease may be as simple as ensuring a brain protein’s sugar levels are maintained.

They’ve discovered that a specific enzyme produced in the brain is stripping sugar molecules from a protein called “Tau.” Medical researchers think that Tau stabilizes structures in the brain called microtubules which allow chemical components to be transported in cells.

The Tau proteins also clump together without their sugars attached. Such clumping is an early event in the development of Alzheimer’s and the number of clumps correlates with the disease’s severity. When mice were given an inhibitor that prevents the enzyme from stripping the Tau proteins from their sugars, they had fewer clumps of Tau and maintained healthier brains.

Dr. David Vocadlo, one of the researchers in this study, said: “A lot of effort is needed to tackle this disease and different approaches should be pursued to maximize the chance of successfully fighting it.”

And of course, if you can’t remember where you left your keys, it’s not a sign of Alzheimer’s disease, but if you can’t remember what your keys are for, perhaps it’s time to see your doctor!

Cruise on over to The Deep website at www.thedeepradioshow.com to learn more about Alzheimer’s and many other topics. Enjoy!

Important Notice:
Because of a mechanical failure in the system and the failure of the Planetarium’s air-conditioner, this weekend’s public Planetarium shows for September have been cancelled. We hope to have both of them fixed by the end of next week, in plenty of time for October’s public shows which will happen on the 11th, 12th and 13th. We were scheduled to show “Autumn Skies” this week and it will probably be October’s show instead. Hope to see all you next month!