Faster, please!

Sarah Knapton writes:

Alzheimer's could be prevented and even cured by boosting the brain's own immune response, scientists at Stanford University believe.

Researchers discovered that nerve cells die because cells which are supposed to clear the brain of bacteria, viruses and dangerous deposits, stop working.

These cells, called 'microglia' function well when people are young, but when they age, a single protein called EP2 stops them operating efficiently.

Now scientists have shown that blocking the protein allows the microglia to function normally again so they can hoover up the dangerous sticky amyloid-beta plaques which damage nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers found that, in mice, blocking EP2 with a drug reversed memory loss and myriad other Alzheimer’s-like features in the animals.

The scientists discovered that in young mice, the microglia kept the sticky plaques under control. But when experiments were done on older mice, the protein EP2 swung into action and stopped the microglia producing enzymes which digested the plaques.

Similarly mice which were genetically engineered not to have EP2 did not develop Alzheimer's disease, even when injected with a solution of amyloid-beta, suggesting that their cells were getting rid of the protein naturally.

And for those mice who developed Alzheimer's, blocking EP2 reversed memory decline.

Now Stanford is hoping to produce a compound which only blocks EP2 to prevent unnecessary side effects.

Read more here.

Thanks to Carl Huffman