Over 5 million people currently suffer from the Alzheimer’s disease. Statistics estimate that 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 years are affected by it. The disease process takes approximately 8-10 years to work from detection to death. It starts out slowly as two abnormal protein fragments called ‘plaques‘ and ‘tangles‘ accumulate in the brain, consistently killing off brain cells.
The âplaquesâ are formed when sticky protein pieces called âamyloid-betaâ (sometimes called ââbeta-amyloidâ) clump together to form the plaques. The tangles are formed when there is an abnormal accumulation of a protein called tau. When tau builds up it detaches from microtubules and clumps with other tau proteins. These clumps build up into threads that eventually become âtanglesâ inside neurons, which block the neurons from synaptic communication.
The plaques and tangles begin accumulating in the hippocampus area of the brain, which affects memory, and then they work their way into the brain’s language center, making it difficult to instantly bring up appropriate words. Slowly, these abnormal protein fragments spread into all other parts of the brain, finally reaching the brain center that controls breathing and the heart, thereby causing death.
Over the past few years, researchers have been making inroads into better understanding dementia and the Alzheimerâs disease. Researchers at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) have finally uncovered the tau pathway in research mice. They have discovered that they can reverse tau-induced memory deficits in mice, even after the onset of the disease.
To learn more about this amazing breakthrough, click HERE.
