Significant progress in Alzheimer's disease: hope to change treatment

Alzheimer's disease is the most important type of Alzheimer's disease, which is manifested in brain dysfunction and personality behavior changes, such as memory loss, poor expression of words, confusion of thinking, decreased judgment and so on, which seriously affects daily life Two years ago, Jack jhamandas, a neuroscientist and well-known professor at the University of Alberta, discovered a way to deal with an abnormal protein associated with Alzheimer's disease Now, he has found a new part of the mystery of Alzheimer's disease, which brings him a step closer to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease Jhamandas and his team found two short-chain amino acids, and when they were injected once a day for five weeks into mice with Alzheimer's disease, the researchers found a significant improvement in memory The treatment also reduced some of the brain's harmful physiological changes associated with the disease The study is published in the scientific report "In mice that received these drugs, we found that there was a decrease in the accumulation of amyloid plaques and in inflammation of the brain This is very exciting, because it not only means improving the memory of mice, but also greatly improves the brain pathology of Alzheimer's disease In fact, such a discovery is a little unexpected for us " Jhamandas explained New findings previous studies have shown that a compound called AC253 has the function of blocking the toxic effect of β - amyloid protein β - amyloid is often present in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, so it is considered to be one of the main causes of this disease AC253 can prevent β - amyloid from binding to specific receptors in brain cells, a process jhamandas likens to blocking keyholes However, although AC253 has been shown to prevent the deposition of β - amyloid protein, it cannot be used as a drug Because it doesn't reach the brain effectively, and it's metabolized in the blood very quickly Therefore, theoretically, the use of AC253 requires a very large dose - this is impractical, and a large dose of compounds will also increase the chance of the body's immune response to the treatment If AC253 can be transformed from injection to oral tablet, it is hopeful to solve the metabolic problem and improve the efficacy, but AC253 is too complex to be made into an effective oral drug Jhamandas's solution is to cut AC253 into pieces to see if it can produce a small peptide that blocks the accumulation of β - amyloid like protein like AC253 Through a series of experiments, jhamandas team found two short chain amino acids of AC253 that met the requirements New drug development with the identification of short peptides, jhamandas and his team, including renowned virologists Lorne Tyrell and Michael Houghton, are currently using computer modeling and artificial intelligence to develop a small molecule drug similar to a drug for controlling high blood pressure or cholesterol Jhamanda's team focused on making an optimized oral small molecule drug so that human clinical trials could begin For patients, small molecule drugs are more convenient, not only oral, but also easier to reach the brain through the blood For pharmaceutical companies, small molecule drugs cost less Jhamanda believes the new drug has the potential to change the way Alzheimer's is treated But at the same time, jhamanda says it's still hard work: "it may take 15 or 20 years, just like building a house, to lay down one brick first, then lay another brick, and slowly lay the foundation to rebuild the house But we are very excited because it may fundamentally change the status quo, and we look forward to future progress " Recommended conference of editor in chief: 2019 Wuxi International Biomedical forum and the 9th International Conference on cell death & Disease - new drug research and development: http://meeting.bioon.com/bcdd? __token=liaodefeng