What do Down syndrome (DS) and Alzheimer’s disease have to do with each other? Apparently, a lot more than first thought. Researchers are beginning a study at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine that will target Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in adults with Down syndrome. The end goal is to test the safety and the effectiveness of a vaccine that will help prevent Alzheimer’s from progressing. This may seem inhumane at first, but once you look at the details, this study makes a lot of sense.
DS is caused by an abnormality in a certain gene–gene 21–and this is the gene that, among other things, is responsible for regulating amyloid beta. Amyloid beta is the main plaque that is present in the brains of those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. When amyloid beta plaque becomes great, Alzheimer’s symptoms become more severe. The connection here is very close, although you need to have a deeper knowledge of genetics and brain biology to see it.
There are ethical questions remaining, of course, but if progress is made, it could be a huge move forward in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s. As anyone that has had a family member with the disease will tell you, it is extremely painful to watch them deteriorate, both mentally and physically. Seeing someone you love go from a normal, fully functioning person, to someone that cannot go into a bathroom by themselves is devastating to families. There are things that can be done to relieve the burden, such as using an in-home care service, or having your loved one move into an assisted living facility where they can receive around the clock supervision and care, but there is absolutely nothing that can be done to change the fact that you are watching your mom or dad, grandma or grandpa, slowly get worse every day. There’s no way to make this easy on families, and finding a cure or preventing the disease is the only way to make things better for future families that might be going through the same thing that you currently are. As science progresses, there is more and more hope that this can happen, and this study seems like it could be one of the bigger steps forward.
There are some difficulties in this study, but the fact that it can give deeper insight into how well anti-amyloid intervention therapies can work in the general population and how precisely these therapies need to be timed to be at their most effective levels is a big ray of hope for those that are in the beginning stages of the disease. The people that will benefit the most from this, though, are those that do not have the disease yet, as even if this proposed study doesn’t work, it will likely illuminate new ideas that could work in the future. Far more money is spent on caring for those with Alzheimer’s than there is on research into the disease, and when a study shows signs of hope, it is definitely a cause for excitement, both by those that need treatment, and those suffering the emotional toll of loving someone with Alzheimer’s.
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