Read about latest research findings

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

Some of the latest and most hopeful findings, compiled from the "2000 Progress Report on Alzheimer's Disease" by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Find it at www.alzheimers.org:

• Scientists from the University of California at Irvine are looking into ways scavenging microglia (a type of migratory nerve cell that cleans up waste) in the brain can engulf and destroy the amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's. This research suggests that using agents that reduce inflammation can speed up this process.

• Scientists at Rockefeller University in New York City have shown estrogen may reduce risk of developing the disease by reducing secretion of beta-amyloid, the protein suspected of causing Alzheimer's. Testosterone also has been shown to do the same thing, but it's not known if the effects of these sex hormones are significant enough to matter.

• Harvard Medical School researchers are looking into ways to break apart beta-amyloid, especially with something called "insulin-degrading enzyme." The enzyme works in tissue cultures, but it's not known yet whether it will do the same in the brain. Increasing the activity of this enzyme may have great potential.

• Scientists are attempting to better understand the patterns of cell death (apoptosis) and why it occurs. Abnormal cell death is a characteristic of Alzheimer's, so an understanding of the process might offer clues to ways to prevent it. Cell death is an important function by which the body weeds out unhealthy cells and targets cancerous ones. A family of enzymes called caspases play a role in this, and in the past year, several teams of NIA-supported scientists made advances in understanding the role these play. An additional study suggests that gene or drug therapies may be able to target specific caspases.

• Mutations in three genes — APP, presenilin 1, presenilin 2 — have been shown to cause early onset of the disease, while part of the APOE gene is a major risk factor for those who get the disease later in life. When the genes are removed or replaced in mice, the amount of plaque creation diminishes. These findings could help in developing drugs to alter the level of APOE protein in the brain.

• Scientists at the University of Washington, Seattle, are trying to identify several more suspected genetic links to Alzheimer's.

• Researchers at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine are studying centenarians who have not experienced Alzheimer's to identify genes that may protect against Alzheimer's.

• Researchers have made advances in the last year in understanding the abnormal growth of protein clusters in the brains of those with a number of diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, Pick's diseases and others.

• Several ongoing trials are looking at whether treatment with anti-oxidants can slow age-related brain decline. It's believed the production of too many free radicals contributes to the aging process.

• Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston have shown that people with Alzheimer's disease have smaller brain tissue by volume, as measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

• The inability to recognize smells might be used as a predictor of the onset of Alzheimer's, according to a study at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.