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ALZHEIMERS

Memory loss in mice with Alzheimer’s reversed

Spanish scientists have for the first time used gene therapy to reverse memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's, an advance that could lead to new drugs to treat the disease, they said on Wednesday.

Memory loss in mice with Alzheimer's reversed
Some 35 million people worldwide are thought to suffer from Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia.File photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP

The Autonomous University of Barcelona team injected a gene which causes the production of a protein that is blocked in patients with Alzheimer's into the hippocampus — a region of the brian essential to memory processing — in mice that were in the initial stages of the disease.

"The protein that was reinstated by the gene therapy triggers the signals needed to activate the genes involved in long-term memory consolidation," the university said in a statement.

Gene therapy involves transplanting genes into a patient's cells to correct an otherwise incurable disease caused by a failure of one or another gene.

The finding was published in The Journal of Neuroscience and it follows four years of research.

"The hope is that this study could lead to the development of pharmaceutical drugs that can activate these genes in humans and allow for the recovery of memory," the head of the research team, Carlos Saura, told news agency AFP.

Alzheimer's, caused by toxic proteins that destroy brain cells, is the most common form of dementia.

Worldwide, 35.6 million people suffer from the fatal degenerative disease, which is currently incurable, and there are 7.7 million new cases every year, according to a 2012 report from the World Health Organisation.

In 2010 the total global societal cost of dementia was estimated to be $604 billion, according to Alzheimer's Disease International, a federation of Alzheimer associations around the world.

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ALZHEIMERS

Swiss firms team up to develop Alzheimer’s test

Swiss firms Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) and AC Immune, a biopharmaceutical company, announced on Wednesday a new partnership to develop an early Alzheimer's diagnostic test.

Swiss firms team up to develop Alzheimer's test
A Nestlé unit is teaming up with another Swiss firm on the Alzheimer's test. Photo: AFP

According to an AC Immune statement, the goal of the research collaboration is to develop a “minimally invasive diagnostic test to identify patients at very early stages.”
   
AC Immune's communications manager Eva Schier said the goal is to test for Alzheimer's by using a blood sample.
   
The sample could potentially show traces of neurofibrillary tangles, of which the chief component is a protein called Tau.

“Tau tangles” are one of the major indicators of Alzheimer's disease.
   
“It has been impossible to detect Tau in the blood,” Schier told AFP, adding that with the proper technology lab tests could help identify the initial biological signs of the disease.
   
Schier said that the research is still in its “very early” stages.
   
According to the statement, AC Immune will provide its “world leading expertise in the biology and pathology of Tau” as well as “laboratory capabilities.”
   
NIHS, a division of Vevey-based Nestlé, will for its part provide a “technology platform to the research program” to help identify Tau in blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
   
NIHS director Professor Ed Baetge said that the “overarching goal is to develop nutritional approaches and technologies that help people maintain or re-establish their cognitive vigour.”
   
A new case of Alzheimer's is diagnosed in the world every three seconds, and 46.8 million people were affected by the disease as of 2015.

Global patient numbers are expected to increase to 131.5 million by 2050, according to AC Immune.
   
Professor Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune, says that early detection is “needed for the development of pharmaceutical as well as nutritional approaches.”
   
Schier says that the early detection should also benefit patients in other ways.
   
“The earlier you start treating patients (with Alzheimer's), the better it is,” she said.
   
“Usually, the patient goes to the doctor when they already have problems. In an ideal world one could treat patients who don't have symptoms yet.”
   
According to the statement, the new partnership is AC Immune's fourth involving the Tau protein.

Financial details of the collaboration with NIHS were not disclosed.

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