Markinsa Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory functionOf the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memory functions back.BEC CREW18 MAR 2015Australian researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques - structures that are responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in Alzheimer’s patients. If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms plaques. Neurofibrillary tangles are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and organelles along them, just like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner tube. As we don’t have any kind of vaccine or preventative measure for Alzheimer’s - a disease that affects 343,000 people in Australia, and 50 million worldwide - it’s been a race to figure out how best to treat it, starting with how to clear the build-up of defective beta-amyloid and tau proteins from a patient’s brain. Now a team from the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland have come up with a pretty promising solution for removing the former. Publishing in Science Translational Medicine, the team describes the technique as using a particular type of ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast, these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier, which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglila cells are basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The team reports fully restoring the memory function of 75 percent of the mice they tested it on, with zero damage to the surrounding brain tissue. They found that the treated mice displayed improved performance in three memory tasks - a maze, a test to get them to recognise new objects, and one to get them to remember the places they should avoid. "We’re extremely excited by this innovation of treating Alzheimer’s without using drug therapeutics," one of the team, Jürgen Götz, said in a press release. "The word ‘breakthrough’ is often misused, but in this case I think this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach." The team says they’re planning on starting trials with higher animal models, such as sheep, and hope to get their human trials underway in 2017. You can hear an ABC radio interview with the team here. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatshername Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 When we get old, about all we have left are our memories. But memories seem to fade and my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be! Thanks Mark 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haymon Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I hope this research continues.. I hope this research continues... Oh I just said that.. For real, I'm only 57 and see things changing already..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattyangel Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 Couldn't of said it any better WHN and Haymon. Couldn't of said it any better WHN and Haymon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SherryB Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I didn't know that mice had Alzheimer's disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowGlobe7 Posted March 27, 2015 Report Share Posted March 27, 2015 I didn't know that mice had Alzheimer's disease. We told you yesterday...did you forget????? (HEE HEEE HEEE) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwave Posted March 28, 2015 Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 I have read that the only thing that all Alzheimer's patients have in commen is a dehydrated brain..... Water, water, water and more water. Your nothing but a big sack of water, (I don't care what they say about you) so you might as well flood yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtFuryUSCZ Posted March 28, 2015 Report Share Posted March 28, 2015 ***/// We now know the benefits of using coconut oil for mental health... did you know it can also render RICE less fattening? A dollop of coconut oil per 1/2 cup of rice, then refrigerate the rice before using it in your next recipe. How about all that Saccharin we thought caused cancer... turns out, cancer cells hate the stuff ! Who'd'a thunk, right? The studies have progressed to now using the rats... we could be 5 years -or less hopefully - out from doing studies on you and I.... Can't hardly wait... bring it on ! We think that the 5 years is because that's how long it's gonna take BIG PHARMA to come up with a way to make it horrendously expensive to obtain.... Until then, we may go back to usin' the 'ol Sweet n' Low... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vietnam1969 Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Now I forgot what I was responding to. Oh well, goodnight all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrparrot Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Let's subject every politician to this treatment. Maybe then they'll remember who they work for and why they're there. And a double treatment for any politician that's going to be sitting in front of any investigative group. Time to get rid of this "I have no recollection of the alleged incident in question." crap... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tankdude Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 OK - I'm probably going to sound like a broken record here - but I guess that's because so many things keep coming back to this, because we do live and die at the cellular level. Alzheimer's disease is being shown to be a Redox disease. Oxidative stress is again linked to this. "There is a growing body of evidence to support a role for oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease (AD), with increased levels of lipid peroxidation, DNA and protein oxidation products (HNE, 8-HO-guanidine and protein carbonyls respectively) in AD brains. The brain is a highly oxidative organ consuming 20% of the body's oxygen despite accounting for only 2% of the total body weight. With normal ageing the brain accumulates metals ions such iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu). Consequently the brain is abundant in antioxidants to control and prevent the detrimental formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated via Fenton chemistry involving redox active metal ion reduction and activation of molecular oxygen. In AD there is an over accumulation of the Amyloid β peptide (Aβ), this is the result of either an elevated generation from amyloid precursor protein (APP) or inefficient clearance of Aβ from the brain." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005273607000387 "One of the emerging causative factors associated with AD pathology is oxidative stress. This AD-related increase in oxidative stress has been attributed to decreased levels of the brain antioxidant, glutathione (GSH)." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24496077 Glutathione is one of the absolutley essential antioxidants that is created in the cells themselves. The biggest things that glutathione has over antioxidants that you get from foods or supplements is it's ability to be reused by the body and can be used in the cells. Most antioxidants from foods and supplements are large chain molecules, and cannot pass through most cell walls - so they attack oxidants primarily in the blood stream. They do this by soaking up the free oxygen radicals and can do this on a one antioxidant molecule to free radical oxygen molecule basis. However - once oxidized (soaking up a free radical), glutathione can be reduced back by glutathione reductase, using NADPH as an electron donor. This can be done hundreds of times for each glutathione molecule, making it much more effective than most other antioxidants. The ratio of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione within cells is often used as a measure of cellular toxicity. For the first time, new findings show that daily consumption of GSH supplements was effective at increasing body stores of GSH. Oral supplementation of 1,000 mg/day can increase levels by 30-35% in six months. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24791752 Personally, I'm taking a supplement that has been clinically shown to increase glutathione efficacy by up to 800%. It also has no toxicity and helps reduce inflammatory responses. Wish I could tell you more - but think I'm pushing the boundaries here because I am associated with the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SherryB Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Nothing like a cat to jog a mouse's memory, Snow!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxinjersey Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 When we get old, about all we have left are our memories. But memories seem to fade and my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be! Thanks Mark Whatsyourname? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatshername Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Whatsyourname? I have many monikers! WHN covers them all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muleslayer Posted March 30, 2015 Report Share Posted March 30, 2015 I have many monikers! WHN covers them all! I beg to differ! One size does not fit all! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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