Posted on 09/26/2011 7:03:09 PM PDT by decimon
AUGUSTA, Ga. – An accomplice to the protein that causes plaque buildup in Alzheimer's disease is the focus of a potential new treatment, according to research by a Georgia Health Sciences University graduate student.
In Alzheimer's, the amyloid protein can accumulate in the brain instead of being eliminated by the body's natural defenses, nestling between the neurons and forming impassable plaques.
Amyloid and the way it gets there could be targets for a new vaccine.
"RAGE, or receptor for advanced glycation endproducts, proteins bind to amyloid and transport it into the brain," said Scott Webster, a fifth-year graduate student who is studying the disease in the lab of Dr. Alvin Terry, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Research has shown that RAGE may also contribute to the inflammation and damage that amyloid causes to the brain's nerve cells.
Webster is researching a vaccine that targets RAGE and amyloid by using the body's own immune system to protect against their over-production and eventual build-up. His work has earned him the 2011 Darrell W. Brann Scholarship in Neuroscience, a $1,000 award honoring an outstanding graduate student on campus working in neuroscience.
"Unfortunately, all of the vaccines for Alzheimer's that have been through clinical trials have failed," he said. "Part of the reason why could be that they're just not comprehensive enough. Most only target amyloid. Our hope is that by taking a more encompassing approach, we will be more effective. So far, that's exactly what we're seeing in our experiments."
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Ping
That would be absolutely wonderful! God bless ‘em and good luck!
Oh, but we can’t subject “innocent 12 year old little girls” to it! Let’s force the “heartless” “Jew” “millionaires and billionaires” to take it.
shhh don’t tell Michele Bachmann
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Not his intent, but it works.
An effective vaccine or even treatment for Alzheimers’ would save so many billions of dollars in health care cost
*********************
And broken hearts. I think it is such a sad disease.
Sure does, it breaks hearts into a thousand pieces. It is a devastating, enraging, frustrating, gut-wrenching, senseless horror of a thing. My grandfather died of Alzheimers just last month after suffering more and more over the last decade. I wouldn't wish his decline, or my family's pain over it, on anyone.
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