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Potential Alzheimer’s Treatment Restores Lost Memories in Mice - Neoscope
A team of researchers might have developed a way to treat — and possibly even vaccinate against — Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists from the UK and Germany made the promising discoveries via experiments involving mice, according to a press release from the University of Leicester. The treatment itself targets the amyloid beta protein in the brain, which becomes deformed and “truncated” as the neurodegenerative illness develops. Tantalizingly, the researchers said, the treatment might even be able to restore “lost” memories.
“We identified an antibody in mice that would neutralize the truncated forms of soluble amyloid beta,” Thomas Bayer, a researcher at the University Medical Center Göttingen who co-authored a paper about the findings in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, said in the release.
Perhaps more excitingly, the team had a breakthrough in a potential vaccine when they attempted to create a version of the antibody that would be accepted by the human body. While researching the “humanized” antibody, dubbed TAP01_04, they discovered that the amyloid beta protein had folded itself into a hairpin shape that had “never been seen before in amyloid beta,” said Mark Carr, another co-author of the study.
A team of researchers might have developed a way to treat — and possibly even vaccinate against — Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists from the UK and Germany made the promising discoveries via experiments involving mice, according to a press release from the University of Leicester. The treatment itself targets the amyloid beta protein in the brain, which becomes deformed and “truncated” as the neurodegenerative illness develops. Tantalizingly, the researchers said, the treatment might even be able to restore “lost” memories.
“We identified an antibody in mice that would neutralize the truncated forms of soluble amyloid beta,” Thomas Bayer, a researcher at the University Medical Center Göttingen who co-authored a paper about the findings in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, said in the release.
Perhaps more excitingly, the team had a breakthrough in a potential vaccine when they attempted to create a version of the antibody that would be accepted by the human body. While researching the “humanized” antibody, dubbed TAP01_04, they discovered that the amyloid beta protein had folded itself into a hairpin shape that had “never been seen before in amyloid beta,” said Mark Carr, another co-author of the study.