A new study carried out by UMA scientist Inés Moreno, in collaboration with the University of Texas, has identified a potential non-invasive therapy that could check the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, “the main form of dementia in the large population”.
The researcher from the University of Malaga has managed to reduce the amount of toxic proteins in the brain – the aggregate is the main cause of neuronal death in Alzheimer’s disease – in a preclinical model.
Balance These proteins are also present in the blood, and according to this UMA expert they are in balance with the brain – if they increase in the brain, they increase in the blood, and vice versa. Based on these results, Moreno proposes eliminating these toxic aggregates as a target for Alzheimer’s disease therapy. The document was published by the scientific journal Molecular Psychiatry, which belongs to the Nature Group.
“Removing toxic proteins from the brain is the goal of most current therapies for Alzheimer’s disease,” explains the researcher from the UMA group “NeuroAD”.
Acting at the circulatory level The innovation of this research is that it proposes to reduce these toxins in the blood, since they are also present in the bloodstream. “We found that if we remove toxins from the blood, they drain back from the brain to the blood in search of balance, improving the clinical signs and pathology of the disease,” says Moreno.
The scientist points out that currently the analysis of blood samples is already used, in some cases, for the diagnosis of the disease as an alternative to neuroimaging. However, so far it has never been used for the purpose demonstrated in this article. Consequently, this new use “opens the door to potential non-invasive therapeutic strategies to be implemented at the circulatory level”.
In this way, the results tested in animal models have shown that this treatment would improve memory and the ability to learn, and correct cognitive alterations, being able not only to eliminate toxic proteins, but also to modify key factors in the development of this illness
Next step: clinical model
The University of Texas, where Inés Moreno is an associate professor, will continue this study at the clinical level, seeking to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in this improvement of the disease and, also, if the treatment would work in patients through, for example, dialysis or until and all transfusions in patients with dementia.
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