A team of scientists now believe that they have a better understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease progresses through the brain. It all revolves around a protein referred to as tau, and how it transforms into a diseased state.
As Alzheimer’s progresses, tau proteins become deposited in brain cells. As they build up, disease symptoms begin to progress, manifesting as the symptoms that we commonly associated with Alzheimer’s. This includes memory loss, loss of coordination, and more.
In a lab setting, researchers were able to recreate Alzheimer’s symptoms by artificially increasing and depositing tau proteins in mice. As a result of this work, researchers believe that the potential for new Alzheimer’s therapies might be close to seeing a breakthrough.
Researchers have long known that the tau protein is associated with Alzheimer’s. However, one of the things that has eluded the grasp of scientists’ knowledge is that tau proteins also exist in healthy brains. There is a marked difference in the makeup of tau proteins between a healthy and an Alzheimer’s brain, though. What changes between the normal and the diseased state has been harder to understand.
This research from Flinders University helps to shed some light on that. They recently published their findings in Science Advances. It’s the next step in understanding how Alzheimer’s disease progresses, and might give researchers a little bit more of an understanding on how to prevent tau proteins from transforming into their diseased state. It might be a key component in preventing Alzheimer’s symptoms from worsening in the future.
Researchers are making progress toward a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease on an almost daily basis. We know much more about the disease than we did even just five years ago. However, there is still no known cure for the disease. Doctors can often take steps to slow the progress of the disease, but it will ultimately be fatal for the person that is diagnosed with it. Unfortunately, even with all of that progress that’s been made, there’s still a long way to go before we can get to this step.
If you have a loved one that has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease it’s important that you and your family have a strong team on your side that can help. There’s no cure for the disease yet, but there are things that can be done to make life a little bit better for the people impacted by it. Hopefully, this is just the latest in many more steps toward this goal.
Whether you’re looking for memory care or something else, we’d love to be a part of your team. We have a team of dedicated caregivers that are trained in working with those that have Alzheimer’s and other cognitive issues. Memory care is not the only thing that we do, but it’s a really important part of it. Cognitive issues can be quite common as people age, unfortunately. Having a team on your side that understands dementia and how to help those that are suffering from it will go a long way toward helping your family members to live a better life.
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