Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Research Leader Says Discovery Offers Hope Early
Alzheimer’s Disease Can Be Cured
Team uncovers new explanation for the spread of key
protein, Tau, within the brain
March 1, 2010 – A research who has spent over 20
years studying Alzheimer’s on the cellular level thinks his team has
made a discovery that he thinks offers hope that patients in early
stages of the disease might someday be cured. The work by his team is
published in the February issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
The researchers from the UMass Lowell Center for
Cellular Neuroscience and Neurodegeneration Research have found a new
mechanism by which a key protein associated with Alzheimer's disease can
spread within the human brain.
The team, led by UMass Lowell biological sciences
professor Garth Hall, provides a new explanation of how the protein tau,
a normal human protein that becomes toxic in Alzheimer's patients, can
appear in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
"My team has discovered two different ways in which
tau is secreted by neurons, or brain cells," said Hall, who has spent
more than 20 years studying Alzheimer's on the cellular level using
larval sea lampreys as a model system.
"This might explain how tau-containing lesions seem
to propagate between adjacent, interconnected parts of the brain during
the development of the disease."
Until very recently, it was universally assumed by
scientists that tau is never secreted from or transferred between
neurons, and that CSF-tau only appears after many neurons have died and
irreversible harm has been done to the brain.
"That tau secretion can occur via two distinct
mechanisms strongly indicates that it is biologically 'real' and is not
just tau protein leaking out of dead neurons," said Hall.
"The fact that it occurs in a pattern that
reproduces what is seen in the CSF of Alzheimer's patients holds out
hope that patients in early stages of the disease might someday be
cured. If we can distinguish secreted tau from tau that is released from
dying neurons in CSF samples, then maybe we can diagnose Alzheimer's in
time to stop the disease before the neurons die."
Hall, together with graduate student WonHee Kim and
UMass Lowell, has filed a provisional patent application in connection
with a novel approach to the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's that is
based on their studies of tau secretion.
As many as 5.3 million people in the United States
are living with the disease, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
The seventh-leading cause of death among senior citizens, Alzheimer's is
the most common form of dementia and will soon become America's most
expensive health care burden.
