Together, Canadian and US scientists have developed what they believe to be a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's is caused by an overabundance of metal ions in the brain and at currently there is no cure for the disease. These researchers believe they have developed a type of molecule with the capability of entering the brain, detecting the metal ions, and finally chemically bonding to these metal ions so as to prevent them from causing any more damage. The molecule is a thioflavin dye with pyridinones attached. The dye marks the areas of the brain that are affected and the pyridinones attach themselves to the metal ions present in the affected areas. This interests me because Alzheimer's is one of the few diseases left for which we have not yet developed a cure and these scientists seem to be on the right track for reversing the affliction which devastatingly affects approximately 24 million people worldwide.
See http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/February/07021101.asp
Posted by Eric Meier
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It sounds like they are making a lot of progress towards finding a cure. I wonder if there are consequences to having a depleted amount of metal ions in the brain.
ReplyDeleteI found this article especially interesting because my Grandmother passed away from Alzheimer's disease. It's sad to see someone lose their memory and forget everything and everyone around them. It seems like this treatment can only slow down the effects or at least not reverse what has already happened. Sometimes this is a hard disease to catch early on...I think mainly because people like to make excuses for their forgetfulness. I hope more progress is made on this treatment.
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