Can nanotechnology help treat Alzheimer's?

June 24, 2018 / BIOON / - Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common dementia disease, which will bring fatal blow to patients and their families The existing drugs can only treat the symptoms of AD, but can not eliminate its inducement Researchers at the International University of Florida (FIU) are now working on a new way to treat AD using nanotechnology to reduce inflammation in the brain "Existing drugs affect neurotransmitters in the brain, but there is still inflammation in the brain, which seems to be the root cause of AD." Madhavan Nair, head of nanotechnology and deputy director of biomedical research at Herbert wittheim School of medicine, said According to the Alzheimer's Association, more than 5 million people in the United States suffer from Alzheimer's disease, with one American suffering from ad every 66 seconds It is also the sixth most fatal disease in the United States - killing more people than breast and prostate cancer combined And June is Alzheimer's and brain awareness month Nair and his team targeted cells in the brain called microglia, and used his FIU patented magnetic nanoparticles (Mens) carrier system to specifically deliver and slowly release two anti-inflammatory drugs, withaferin A and crid3, to these cells "We hope that this will inhibit the neuroinflammatory response in microglia and thus improve the cognitive function of AD patients." Nair said Although scientists are not sure what causes cell death and tissue damage in the brain of AD patients, they speculate that plaques and tangles cause these consequences When beta amyloid proteins are intertwined between neurons in the brain, they form plaques Researchers at Nair lab are using advanced technologies - bioinformatics and the three-dimensional structure of beta amyloid to find the binding sites of these anti-inflammatory drugs on beta amyloid These studies will be transformed into a new way to treat Alzheimer's disease Reference: can nanotechnology help treat Alzheimer's?