New Direction Suggested for Alzheimer's Therapy

A problem in transporting a certain protein across the blood brain barrier and out of the brain may be the cause of Alzheimer's disease, according to new research reported in the October 2003 issue of Neuroscience.

Normally, amyloid beta protein, thought to cause Alzheimer's, leaves the brain and crosses the blood brain barrier, a wall of blood vessels that feed the brain and regulate the entry and exit of brain chemicals. When researchers analyzed the accumulation of amyloid beta protein in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, they found that the protein becomes blocked in the brain and cannot cross the blood brain barrier. The amyloid beta protein accumulates, and the more it accumulates, the harder it is for the blood brain barrier to move it out and the more disabled the patient becomes.

Since the transport problem causes the problem, scientists should focus on finding ways to destroy the protein with enzymes or pushing it across the blood brain barrier and out of the brain, according to lead author William A. Banks, M.D., a professor at Saint Louis University (MO, USA).

"It's going to be a big piece to solving the Alzheimer's disease puzzle,” noted Dr. Banks. "If one could reverse the transport deficit problem, the system should be able to pump the protein out again. The impaired transporter problem may be an easier therapeutic target.”




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