Research Holds Promise for Early Memory Loss Treatment

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study conducted in mice may one day translate to early treatment for the memory loss that often leads to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

University of Minnesota researchers, working with fellow investigators from Johns Hopkins, have identified a certain substance in the brain that causes the subtle memory problems that show up in people long before they show evidence of nerve cell death.

The authors explain scientists have traditionally believed Alzheimer's disease was caused by two proteins leading to the formation of tangles and plaques found on autopsy in the brains of people who died of the condition. However, recent studies have indicated the tangles are not really the cause. This new study suggests the plaques aren't either.

The investigators arrived at that conclusion after genetically engineering mice to suffer from early memory problems similar to those seen in people as they age. These mice had no signs of either plaque buildups or nerve cell damage, but they did have a different form of the plaque-causing protein, known as amyloid-beta.

When they took the different protein from the afflicted mice and injected it into normal mice, they developed the same memory difficulties, providing the protein is the cause.

"Finding the specific cause of memory loss and cognitive decline gives scientists a protein complex to target," says study author Karen H. Ashe, M.D., Ph.D. "Now we can begin to work on how that protein leads to the disease and what we can do to prevent it from harming the brain."

The investigators hope their discovery will spur the development of drugs to combat the condition.

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SOURCE: Nature, published online March 16, 2006