Alzheimer’s is a disease that strips the afflicted individual of his or her ability to recall people, places, things, activities and memories. The progression of the disease leads to painful realizations that the one with memory loss has become just a shadow of their former self. A person suffering from this disease has increasingly lost the neurons that are integral part of human brain. These nerve cells, known as neurons, are attacked when certain formations, “plaques and tangles in the cerebral cortex and limbic system,” cause the degeneration of the neuron and disable it from carrying out its function.
The current medications for Alzheimer’s patients are those that focus on the fact that neurons are crucial in the release of acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that plays significant role in our bodies. Yet, these medicines are effective in granting clarity to the patients for a short period, they only increase the level of this neurotransmitter by blocking enzymes that would get rid of it. More importantly though, the new research is focusing on the molecular level of the process of neuron degeneration and how it can be slowed down, halted and maybe even reversed.
The plaques that form in an individual with Alzheimer’s are results of a protein called A-beta. A-beta is part of a larger protein in the nerve cell membrane; it gets cut by enzymes called beta-secretase and gamma-secretase. The cutting and congregating of the A-beta protein, in and around the neurons, leads to these A-beta protein plaques, that somehow hinder the neuron from performing its function. In individuals who have mutations on genes that deal with A-beta protein or the enzymes that cut the A-beta, the chances of them developing Alzheimer’s is very high. The research is headed to developing drugs that target the enzymes that actually cut the A-beta from the larger protein.
If the enzymes are targeted and inhibited from doing their action, then the A-beta will never clump to form the plaques in the first place. Cutting out beta-secretase enzyme in studies with rodents and mice showed no negative effect, but these are still being worked on and further developed. The other enzyme, the gamma-secretase, can accomplish a very important task of cutting the A-beta with water in the cell membrane. This enzyme can be targeted and destroyed through using inhibitors except that it actually has very important parts to do in the body such as in the maturation and differentiation of stem cells. The fact is that the drug treatments should be able to inhibit just the action that leads to cleavage of the A-beta protein and not affect the other job of the enzyme. The other research has tried to actively remove the A-beta deposits through immunization but this led to the activation of T-cells that become harmful and overaggressive in doing their job. Research on tau protein, which is important in microtubules and filaments, is also significant because the protein becomes tangled and dysfunctional in Alzheimer patients with plaques.
Alzheimer’s is something that is painful not only for the person suffering from it, but also for the people around that person. The research on Alzheimer’s disease that is focusing on better treatment is promising for these patients. New research is hopeful in helping patients as it seems to be searching for the way that it can be stopped in the earliest stages and signs of the disease and also when it has become advanced too. Tackling the problems of how, why and what affects the neurons seems to be a better strategy so that we can work to fix the things that are harmful that cause this disease.
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Because my grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's, I chose that as my topic for my paper in anatomy and physiology class. There was an article in Scientific America that discussed Alzheimer's study and I had to write about it.
I was not going to share this but I wanted to just make it even for my points even though I am not trying to win this scholarship, I have already decided personally the people who I want to win, and think should win. :P
You've taught me a lot here. I loved working in geriatric psych with Alzheimer's patients. They are my favorite next to adolescents. I always had a great time with them but it was when their families came to visit that I would understand how sad their situation was. They had fun with me, but I could see how they struggled to remember who they were when their family was there.
It was very hard to see people who had been rich or powerful or heroes of some sort. I met war heroes, public heroes, politicians, policemen, engineers, scientists, philanthropists, novelists, actors, and teachers. It is so sad that we don't know of an effective treatment yet. I have seen some success with ECT though, but few people consent to that.
The hardest thing for me to see were the ones who were abused or whose families only got together to fight about who would get the house or the money, all right in front of my patient.
I really hope that our culture learns how important it is to reach out to our elderly. The baby boomers are making aging an important social issue. I am certainly not looking forward to caring for my parents as they age. I know I will though, but that is going to be very difficult.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
What I remember is that my grandmother's long term memory was quite sharp, she remembered these people she had known all her life, what really upset my siblings and I was that she did not know us but she knew my cousins (my uncle's kids)
We understood that she was the one who raised them (literally, even though all three of them are younger than me) She is the one who changed their diapers, fed them and clothed them when they were little and she was in the US and we were in Pakistan.
When we moved to the US in 1997, my dad brought his mom to live with us because my uncle had no time to care for his mother and his wife did not care at all, my grandmother's alzeihmer's had gotten a lot worse by then and we did the best we could afterwards.
As I said, the day before she died, she knew almost everyone's name, even my sister's and mine, who she almost never remembered. She remembered our brother, even though he is the youngest of three, because she was the one who named him Bilal.
"No, not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera Fudge "It's the hard-knock life..."
My mom used to work in the Alzheimer's ward of the nursing home she worked in. She loved it, but was also saddened by what the disease does to people. It's certainly not a pretty way to go.
I remember her telling me about one of her patients who kept a diary of her experiences as a person with Alzheimer's. The diary depicted how the woman basically watched her mind deteriorate over time. It was really amazing to see such a thing happen from their point of view.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
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"No, not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera Fudge "It's the hard-knock life..."