Alzheimer's: Every Mystery Has Its Solution

I believe that medical mysteries are something that will never cease to exist. No matter how much advancement we have in technology, there are some things that we can never get to the bottom of. But when we do figure out a 50 year long disorder, disease, or even just a question, it is something that will forever be remembered. There are hundreds of thousands of extremely intelligent individuals out there that are trying to solve some of the world’s most complicated mysteries that take the lives of millions of people each year.

The mystery of Alzheimer’s is something that has left thousands of doctors and other medical professionals scratching their heads. As the years go on, the data and clues begin to stack up and eventually it will begin to point to a certain direction. Dr. Subhojit Roy is making great advancements in figuring out what exactly is going wrong in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s. Over 5 years of research of the disease has led him to discover that patients with Alzheimer’s, they have an over accumulation of amyloid beta, an endogenous protein that is in our bodies. This over accumulation of amyloid beta in the human brain then causes insoluble deposits to form, more commonly known as plaques. These plaques is one of the main characterizations that we see in all patient’s with Alzheimer’s. Dr. Roy was able to find a way to possibly stop the synthesis of amyloid beta through the use of CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genome. Through the use of CRISPR-Cas9, we may cut out the specific sequences that regulate APP and BACE-1, precursor proteins and enzymes are responsible for deriving amyloid beta, thereby preventing the formation of these insoluble deposits.  

This is a huge step in figuring out Alzheimer’s and possibly finding a treatment that may slow, eradicate or even prevent the onset of the disease. However, even though we may have found a possible treatment for the disease, the actual cause of Alzheimer’s is still uncertain. Recent studies have shown that sleep deprivation may be linked to Alzheimer’s. Drs. Ensan Shokri and Nora D. Volkow have recently found that sleep deprivation in mice causes an increase in Amyloid-beta that cause the plaques that we seen in Alzheimer’s patients to form. Even though that this was only tested in mice, researchers believe that they will see similar results in human trials. This might be another huge step in terms of prevention and a way that we can easily utilize to lessen the chances of developing the disease.

Through the work of Dr. Subhojit Roy, Dr. Ensan Shokri, Dr. Nora D. Volkow and thousands of other researchers and doctors that are trying to solve the mystery of Alzheimer’s, are growing closer to the solution by each day that goes on and its only a matter of time before we see a breakthrough. Every mystery has its solution. 

ARTICLE: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180413155301.htm