Alzheimer's goodbye?
Study finds possible cause of dementia – first treatment tests successful
Created: 04/22/2022, 18:47
By: Anna Lorenz
A US study made an explosive discovery in tests with laboratory mice.
The results could make Alzheimer's curable in the long term.
Altanta – A research group from Emory University School of Medicine published a study in
Nature
magazine whose results seem almost unbelievable.
As the coronavirus continues to threaten the health of the world's population, scientists appear to have made a real breakthrough in Alzheimer's research by testing demented laboratory mice.
Not only the dementia, but also other complaints that occur especially in old age could be curable in the future using the results.
Alzheimer's – Researchers use tests to find possible key to curing dementia
As reported by the Alzheimer Research eV initiative, the disease, which has so far inevitably caused the death of nerve cells in the brain, is the most common form of dementia, accounting for two thirds of cases.
Approximately 1.6 million people in Germany have tested positive for forgetfulness with illness value - in contrast to the quite normal forgetfulness of old age, this means that the sufferers are gradually no longer able to carry out everyday processes and circumstances because they lose the memory of them .
As the science
portal pektrum.de
reports, 70 percent of the Alzheimer's subtype affects women.
The disease usually occurs from the age of 65 and forms deposits of harmful proteins in the brain long before it becomes noticeable.
Neuroscientist Keqiang Ye and his team have been able to herald a possible breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer's after the first signs of experiments with laboratory animals.
The scientists focused on the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), which is important for sexual function and is of crucial importance for both the regulation of the menstrual cycle and sperm production.
The hormone is formed in the pituitary gland;
the hypothalamus determines how much FSH is released into the blood.
With increasing age and especially around the onset of menopause, this value increases significantly in women - but men also release more and more FSH over the years.
Promising signs: According to the study, the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) could be the key to healing various diseases, including Alzheimer's in particular.
Tests with laboratory animals brought clear results.
© Science Photo Library/imago
It is already known that Alzheimer's disease is usually associated with "visceral obesity, dysregulated energy homeostasis and bone loss".
Obesity as a result of internal creek fat, a malfunction of the metabolic processes and osteoporosis can be positively influenced by a reduction in the FSH level, as has been proven.
Alzheimer's, obesity, osteoporosis - scientists from Atlanta test putative super hormone
The researchers took the fact that the hormone occupies these two key positions as an indication of its potentially decisive influence on Alzheimer's disease.
They therefore carried out tests to investigate the extent to which adding or reducing the FSH level in laboratory mice with dementia had an effect on their disease – with outstanding results.
To simulate menopause, the researchers sterilized the rodents and gave them antibodies to block FSH secretion.
Not only was the signaling pathway C/EBPβ/AEP, which plays an essential role in Alzheimer's disease, interrupted;
the protein deposits already present in the brains of the mice also disappeared, along with the detectable Alzheimer's symptoms.
Conversely, the additional administration of FSH in the test showed signs of a significant worsening of the disease in both female and male rodents.
In this respect, the researchers from the USA are certain of a connection between the FSH level in the blood and Alzheimer's disease.
The results of the study could contribute to the development of non-critic,
effective medicines and one day even lead to the curability of Alzheimer's disease.
(askl)
