Treatments for Alzheimer's Disease Beyond Amyloid-Beta Peptides

   Treatments for Alzheimer's Disease Beyond Amyloid-Beta Peptides  

    The devastating disease, Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), has affected millions of people in the world and many test trials for treatments have been done to find a cure or slow down the progression. Over time, scientists have found that amyloid-beta peptides accumulating and aggregating in the brain are a large factor in the progression of AD. This has led many researchers to target amyloid-beta (AB) peptides in their attempts to cure and treat AD. With many failed efforts to treat AD, scientists Gandy and Kumar applied their knowledge about AB peptides to create a new approach to treating AD and understanding the qualities of AB peptides.

Within humans, many targeted AB peptide drugs have failed to treat AD, which leaves researchers to find a different way to proceed with finding a cure or treatment. In the article, “What Would It Take to Get an Effective Alzheimer’s Drug?,” Gandy et al. experimented with treatments beyond amyloid-beta peptides. Within trials of using AB-peptide targeted drugs with older patients, they found “no evidence of beneficial memory function” by lowering AB peptides (Gandy et al., 2017). Due to this lack of evidence, they targeted tau protein to lower the amount of their levels of tangles in the brain. “Passive immunotherapy would be used with anti-tau antibodies”, which its data would be used for drugs in the future (Gandy et al., 2017). Besides the genetic treatments, Gandy et al. proposed a healthy cardiovascular system during midlife creates a lower risk of AB peptide build up in late-life. While exercising and cognitive activities do prolong a healthy brain to an extent, it is not a foolproof cure or treatment to those with AD. Gandy et al. also found that canines who suffer from a similar disease to AD can be better model systems than rodents as in rodents’ brains, it is difficult to understand the cognition between “early-onset mutations and common late-onset forms of AD” (Gandy et al., 2017). All in all, there are many approaches scientists can take to further understand how to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease.

AB peptide aggregates are not only known to affect humans with Alzheimer’s Disease, but also mouse and worm models. In the article, “Amyloid-b peptide protects against microbial infection in mouse and worm models of Alzheimer’s disease,” Kumar et al. discusses the different functions amyloid-beta peptides can have when interacting inside of a mouse or a worm. Within their study, the researchers found that Amyloid-b peptide (AB) protects against bacterial infections while antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) protect against infection-like symptoms such as fibrillization. These antimicrobial activities within AB peptides are able to “protect against fungal and bacterial infections with mouse and worms with AD” (Kumar et al., 2016). This explains how AB peptides are strong enough to protect themselves from treatments or drugs as they hold anti-viral qualities. Kumar et al. also found that AB peptides were able to bind the microbial pathogens to entrap them as well. When it is dysregulated in AD, “AB peptide activity is lower on the spectrum of protectivity” (Kumar et al., 2016). Within AD pathology in these models, the antimicrobial properties are disrupted, which explains the excess AB peptides created. As for a treatment of their findings in AD pathology, therapeutic interventions were recommended for anti-inflammation within neurons.

Overall, further understanding of the AB peptides can create a better perception into creating a working cure or treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. Through the research of Gandy and his team, there are multiple approaches inside and outside the range of AB peptides to find a stronger treatment. For example, they found anti-inflammatory tau immunotherapies would be beneficial for slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease. AB peptides are a large reason for AD as they aggregate, but targeting the protein is not going to fully treat the progression of the disease. In the research of Kumar and his team, they found properties of AB peptides that are beneficial to organisms. For example, AB peptides are able to entrap microbial pathogens and fight against bacterial infections. This creates conflict as too many AB peptides can create inflammation within the brain which progresses AD. In conclusion, qualities of AB peptides and other proteins involved with AD are still being researched heavily as some characteristics of these proteins are asymptomatic for the individual. As Alzheimer’s Disease’s proteins are better understood, there is more hope of finding a treatment or even a cure.

Works Cited

Gandy, S. (2017, July 17). What Would It Take to Get an Effective Alzheimer's Drug? Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/what-would-it-take-to-get-an-effective-alzheimers-drug/. 

Kumar, D. K., Choi, S. H., Washicosky, K. J., Eimer, W. A., Tucker, S., Ghofrani, J., … Moir, R. D. (2016). Amyloid-β peptide protects against microbial infection in mouse and worm models of Alzheimer’s disease. Science Translational Medicine, 8(340). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf1059