Dallas scientists find the "Big Bang" of Alzheimer's disease

Despite billions of dollars spent in clinical trials over the decades, Alzheimer's disease remains one of the most devastating and disconcerting diseases in the world, affecting more than 5 million people worldwide. Americans

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They discovered a "Big Bang" of Alzheimer's disease – the point where a healthy protein becomes toxic, but has not yet formed deadly tangles in the brain.

According to a study by UT Southwestern's O. Donnell Brain Institute, scientists discovered the changing nature of a tau molecule just before it began to stick to itself to form larger aggregates.

It is believed that tau protein is the main driver of Alzheimer's disease.

The Revelation offers a new strategy for detecting devastating disease before it settles, and has spawned an effort to develop treatments that stabilize tau proteins before they happen. change shape.

Doctors call it the largest discovery in Alzheimer's research so far.

"New treatments have failed to stop the progression of Alzheimer's disease. What we hope to do is devise a treatment that would actually stop the disease even before it manifests itself in a person," said Dr. Marc Diamond, director of the Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases of UT Southwestern

"In the case of other diseases that are due to a form-change protein, it has been possible to design a drug. If this has been done in other diseases, this could be done in Alzheimer's disease. "

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other serious cognitive abilities – enough to interfere with everyday life. 39. Alzheimer's accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

Any drug resulting from the discovery of the origin of the disease would still be Diamond

Taylor Parker, of Arlington, was diagnosed two years ago and is now supported by her husband Stan

"After a while, I realized that I was slowly losing Taylor. "Some days I did not go, some days, I cried," said Stan Parker.

Despite the fact that any possible medication will probably not help Taylor on time, they say that they are happy that she is still able to enjoy life with as much joy as possible. The next steps of the Diamond team are to develop a simple clinical test that examines the blood or cerebrospinal fluid of a patient to detect the first biological signs of dementia.