Alzheimer’s Disease is Closer to a New Treatment, Researchers Say

The fight against Alzheimer’s disease has always been challenging, but it is a never-ending process of gaining knowledge of new things and reaching a new place each time. Because of this, the work of researchers shouldn’t be halted as it was in the most recent instance. An examination of human brain tissue suggests that immune cells act differently in Alzheimer’s disease-affected brains compared to healthy brains. These findings point to a potential new therapy target for the condition.

Find more below.

Recent Research Regarding Alzheimer’s Disease Brings in New Information

Microglia in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients were found to be in a pre-inflammatory condition more often, which renders them less inclined to be protective. This discovery was made possible by research done by the University of Washington.

Neuroscientists Katherine Prater and Kevin Green from the University of Washington, together with peers from various US universities, employed brain autopsy samples from research donors in order to study the gene activity of microglia in order to investigate the role of microglia in Alzheimer’s disease. There were a total of 12 research donors who had Alzheimer’s disease and ten healthy controls in the study.

Now that we have determined the genetic profiles of these microglia, we can try to find out exactly what they are doing and hopefully identify ways to change their behaviors that may be contributing to Alzheimer’s disease, explained neuroscientist Katherine Prater.

The researchers came to the conclusion that individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease had microglia clusters in their brains that were more likely to be in a pro-inflammatory phase. This was the overarching finding. This indicates that people have a greater propensity to create inflammatory chemicals, which have the potential to cause harm to brain cells and may also play a role in the course of Alzheimer’s disease.

This study is still in its preliminary phases; nonetheless, it has advanced our knowledge of the function that these cells play in Alzheimer’s disease and has suggested that specific microglia clusters may be potential therapy targets for future medications.