Yale researchers have identified a drinkable cocktail of designer molecules that interferes with a crucial first step of Alzheimer’s and even restores memories in mice, they report Jan. 2 in the journal Cell Reports.
The binding of amyloid beta peptides to prion proteins triggers a cascade of devastating events in the progression of Alzheimer’s — accumulation of plaques, a destructive immune system response, and damage to synapses.
“We wanted to find molecules that might have a therapeutic effect on this network,” said senior author Stephen Strittmatter, the Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology, professor of neuroscience, and director of the Yale Alzheimer Disease Research Center.
Strittmatter and research scientist Erik Gunther screened tens of thousands of compounds looking for molecules that might interfere with the damaging prion protein interaction with amyloid beta. They found that an old antibiotic looked like a promising candidate but was only active after decomposing to form a polymer. Related small polymers retained the benefit and also managed to pass through the blood-brain barrier.
They then dissolved the optimized polymeric compound and fed it to mice engineered to have a condition that mimics Alzheimer’s. They found that synapses in the brains were repaired and mice recovered lost memory.
A collaborating team at Dartmouth University reported a positive response when they delivered the same cocktail to cells modeled to have Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a devastating neurological condition caused by infection with misfolded prion protein.
The next step is to verify the compounds aren’t toxic in preparation for translation to clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease.
Research was funded by grants from the NIA, the NINDS, the Alzheimer’s Association and the Falk Medical Research Trust to Strittmatter.
Publication: “Rescue of Transgenic Alzheimer’s Pathophysiology by Polymeric Cellular Prion Protein Antagonists” by Erik C. Gunther, Levi M. Smith, Mikhail A. Kostylev, Timothy O. Cox, Adam C. Kaufman, Suho Lee, Ewa Folta-Stogniew, George D. Maynard, Ji Won Um, Massimiliano Stagi, Jacqueline K. Heiss, Austin Stoner, Geoff P. Noble, Hideyuki Takahashi, Laura T. Haas, John S. Schneekloth, Janie Merkel, Christopher Teran, Zahra K. Naderi, Surachai Supattapone and Stephen M. Strittmatter, 2 January 2019, Cell Reports.
doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2018.12.021
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6 Comments
Based on the groundbreaking research at the Buck Institute BY Dr. Bredesen and colleagues, this may be a complimentary therapy applied at the point where the cause(s) of the dementia or Alzheimer’s has/have been determined and eliminated and treatment has entered the recovery phase to start removing amyloid plaque.
I would love to have my husband on one of these clinical trials.
I love my husband to take a trail as the doctors told heim they can’t do any thing fo him. He is only in middle stages I think because no one’s tells us.
How can we get on the trial? Thank you! Lauren Anderson [email protected]
I think that “next step” is a pretty important one, don’t you?
Proteins are the building blocks of everything that lives on Earth. Since the beginning of time all species on Earth pretty much stayed within a kind of a diet of whatever that their ancestors of whatever kind of life form they are existed on. However in about the late 1800’s and early 1900’s a species called humans started changing their diets and started eating a lot of food that contained INCOMPLETE proteins which are proteins that lacked the 11 different amino acids that the human body needs to combine with the 9 different proteins that the body manufactures itself to make a perfect body cell of every kind. Since the 1900’s when the human species started on this incomplete protein diet there has been many illnesses that the humans have been experiencing. Memory loss in old age, ADD, cancers of all kinds, constipation, obesity, and many other illnesses, especially old age illnesses and young children illnesses started popping up in humans.
However, once I was dirt poor and had to figure out a way to eat inexpensively so I came up with a food recipe that I discovered can provide all the 11 different amino acids that the body needs to make perfect body cells of every kind. I named it Adelynn’s Miracle Beans recipe and diet plan. I named it after my granddaughter. I refer to it as the ‘Fountain of Youth’ food recipe. I have Adelynn’s Miracle Beans recipe and diet posted on the internet.
After daily eating Adelynn’s Miracle Beans recipe and diet for about six months I noticed that my body was changing into a more healthy body. After 1 year I noticed my body formed into a 10 body. One of the many improvements I noticed was that my memory improved tremendously. Being that I type a lot and before eating this bean recipe my typing speed was slower than when I was young. However after eating this bean recipe I noticed that my ability to type faster was greater than it was in my life! I also noticed that my wrinkles went away as my skin became the most youthful looking that it ever was since I was young! And I was 61 y.o. at the time! I also noticed that my muscles were the strongest that they were in my life and I wasn’t even exercising much at all and physically disabled. I know something was going on for the better in my body when my E.D. problems went away and my erection got the strongest of my life! In fact it was rock hard! My blood pressure went down, my eyesight improved, my bones got stronger, my pot belly disappeared as my body transformed into a 10 body as all the overweight fat disappeared from my body. I figured out that my body was creating perfect body cells of every kind and was remaking my body perfectly as I ate Adelynn’s Miracle Beans recipe and diet plan.
I believe that Adelynn’s Miracle Beans can remake everyone’s body perfectly! Try it yourself and watch how the biological cell making machine called your body will remake your body perfect too and you won’t even have to wait for doctors or scientist to figure out a way to drain your pocketbook in order to make a perfect you!