EXCITING BREAKTHROUGH IN ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH!

A brand new study out of Duke University is turning everything we thought we knew about Alzheimer’s on it’s head! The study suggests that immune cells play a key role in why brain plaques build up, causing dementia. The study was done in mice,

The study found that the immune cells that normally protect the brain begin to abnormally consume a nutrient called arginine. Arginine is an amino acid and an important building block of protein. This occurred as genes suppressing the immune system dominated.

This contradicts science’s widely accepted theory on the dementia causing disease, most notably that the brain in Alzheimer’s releases molecules that rev up the immune system, leading to plaque buildup, damaging the brain.

If in fact this study is right, and brains in Alzheimer’s go awry by consuming arginine, then treatment can be targeted at blocking cells’ consumption of arginine.

In fact, scientists have already come up with a drug, DFMO, that does just this. DFMO had been used in anti-tumor research so far. When used in this study, mice that were given DFMO performed better at memory tests.

This is very exciting in terms of how we can possibly prevent and even reverse dementia. A next step will be to show that a drug like DFMO that blocks arginine consumption in the brain can reduce the death of brain cells.

Kudos to researchers at Duke, who approached the fight against Alzheimer’s from a different angle and found a potentially game changing result!

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/570526/Alzheimer-s-drug-discovery-reveals-switch-off-cruel-dementia-disease