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Johnny Cash, Robin Williams, Salvador Dali, Muhammad Ali – all brilliant people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.
And for every famous face related to these diseases, there are thousands of ordinary people whose lives have also changed.
Professor Andrew Hill could not tell the 200 people gathered in Wodonga Tuesday what they wanted to hear – a treatment is near.
But the director of the Institute of Molecular Sciences at La Trobe University had reason to hope during his presentation at the Border Campus.
It's molecular
When Professor Hill was in London to undertake his PhD on mad cow disease in the 1990s, there was heated debate over whether proteins, amyloid beta or tau, were ultimately responsible for the Alzheimer's disease.
"These are the two dementia proteins that are involved in Alzheimer's disease … The amyloid beta is a protein that can fold badly into bad form and form amyloid plaques, and tau form these neurofibillary tangles, "he said.
"These two different structures – these entanglements made up of tau protein and these amyloid plaques in amyloid beta – have been observed in people who died of Alzheimer's disease.
WATCH THE FUTURE: Professor Andrew Hill, Director of the Institute of Molecular Sciences at La Trobe University, delivered a public lecture on Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's disease on the university campus of Albury-Wodonga University. Image: MARK JESSER
"My first scientific conference that I attended during my Ph.D. … was like a religious convention.On one side, there was beta-amyloid protein," the Baptists "from one side, and the" tausts "from the other.
"But since that time, we have somehow converged and they are both involved in the disease, although we do not understand why."
In Parkinson's disease, the focus is on alpha-synuclein.
It forms in moist bodies, which, like the demented proteins to blame in the case of Alzheimer's disease, "accumulate in the brain like rusty deposits that we find in the cars ".
"Parkinson's disease at the pathological level is a loss of very specific neurons in the brain," said Professor Hill.
"The special neurons you lose release a neurotransmitter called dopamine … that allows us to begin normal movements.
"Several different drugs have been developed that can replace or mimic the action of dopamine.
"But this type of therapy does not really cure Parkinson's disease, but rather the treatment of symptoms.
"And that's where we are right now.We have treatments that can alleviate the symptoms, but do not cure the ongoing neurodegeneration."
Increasing problem
Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease accelerate our natural loss of neurons that "wake the nervous system".
"We are constantly losing these neurons as we get older – they are not being replaced – and that's where we start to forget things as we get older," said Professor Hill.
"By losing all these neurons, the brain structure of a person with advanced Alzheimer's disease has changed dramatically.
"So why are these diseases becoming more common? The simple reason is that our life expectancy has increased."
Alzheimer's disease, described for the first time just over 110 years ago, is the most common form of dementia – accounting for more than half of all cases.
"It's an aging disease and the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease increases twice in five after the age of 65," said Professor Hill.
"Women are more likely than men and life expectancy after diagnosis is about seven years.
"These diseases can occur randomly and can also spread within families … There are some mutated genes that can be transmitted.
"(But) these are diseases of aging and will become a very important problem that we must try to solve."
diagnostics
Simple problem solving, abstract thinking and memory testing are common ways to determine if a person is suffering from any of these diseases.
"I think there was a problem for a while asking patients to remember who the Australian prime minister was," joked Professor Hill.
"The diagnosis is usually only confirmed when you can watch a piece of brain tissue."
New diagnostic methods include positron emission tomography (PET), which involves a radioactive tracer that identifies proteins, and a cerebrospinal fluid (CS) test.
The first costs $ 2,000 and the last one, $ 375, and although there are advantages and disadvantages for everyone, both are not good for routine testing.
"So, what we did in my lab is trying to exploit a new technology using DNA sequencing to see if we can develop a blood test for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, the disease Parkinson's and other neurological diseases, "said Professor Hill.
"We believe that changes in the brain (protein-related) occur up to 20 years earlier than when someone has a full-blown disease."
The sequencing of the human genome was first conducted in 2001 and since then its cost has been reduced from $ 100 million to $ 1,000, "revolutionizing" the role of genetics in all types of diseases. can be understood.
"The test we have developed involves our collaboration with the Australian Imaging, Biomarker and Lifestyle Study, conducted since 2006," said Professor Hill.
A page of L & # 39; age in September 2016, the colleague of Prof. Hill, Lesley Cheng, presented his work identifying 16 abnormalities in the blood of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
"We were able to correctly diagnose 13 out of 15 patients with Alzheimer's disease, which gives us a very good diagnostic accuracy, from a blood sample, of 86%," said the Professor Hill.
If healthy people who had been identified by the blood test developed Alzheimer's disease, the accuracy of the test could be greater than 90%.
"So we are keeping up with these patients to see if they are actually developing Alzheimer's disease and refining the signature of the 16 small genes."
What destination now?
Unfortunately, just a few months ago, clinical trials of an anti-amyloid beta antibody were stopped.
"The company that was running the trial said that although it could reduce the amount of these brain-damaged proteins, it was not enough to change the patient's cognition," he said. .
"So, while you're cutting down on protein, you still have the other symptoms of lost memory and motor symptoms.
"It's really unfortunate for the field and we wonder what kind of things do we have to do to try to cure this disease?"
"I think developing early diagnoses could be a way to do that – if you could maybe apply that kind of treatment a lot earlier, before you have a lot of these proteins in your brain, that could slow down the disease enough for you not to have these symptoms.
"We need to treat these patients sooner, but that means we need a test to detect the disease sooner.
"There is no cure yet."
Professor Hill and his LIMS $ 100 Million Research Team Associated with the Efforts of a Brilliant Mind Across the Country Will Be Critical to Address Diseases Affecting Over 55 Million of people around the world – a figure that will double here every 20 years. in.
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