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A report made in the journal Nature Medicine and described on BBC News highlights how US scientists believe that the bodies own immune system could be harnessed to fight against Alzheimers.
The scientists reporting "turned off" a part of the immune system of mice which resulted in harmful brain deposits being cleared away and an improvement in memory.
Alzheimers is caused by damage to the brain due to the formation of "amyloid plaques" in the brain cells of alzheimers patients. Scientists have since been looking for ways to break up and dispose of these plaques, any possibly halting or reversing the symptoms. Researchers in the studies used genetic engineering to block an immune system response in the mice, but only in cells outside the brain. They had expected the immune system to respond by causing inflammation on the outside of the brain, however they actually found that it acted like a "vacuum cleaner" and up to 90% of the plaque material disappeared from the brains of mice. This then led to significant improvements in tests of the animals memory.
The research team at the Alzheimers Society said there was increasing research into inflammation in the brain and Alzheimers, and more research would be needed in this current study to reveal if the process could work in humans.
Source : BBC News online
Date : 2/06/2008
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