Sarasota Researchers May Have Made Progress In Alzheimer's Treatment

Sarasota scientists have made a discovery that may pave the way for more effective drug therapies to treat Alzheimer’s patients in the future.

In a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Roskamp Institute’s scientists say they have isolated a single enzyme connected to all three key factors in Alzheimer’s disease – accumulation of amyloid protein, inflammation and modulation of the “tau” protein. All three damage nerve cells in the brain.

“These studies suggest there is a single drug target to inhibit all three key pathologies of Alzheimer’s disease,” stated the study’s lead researcher, neurobiologist Daniel Paris, in a media release.

The hope now is that this finding will enable the development of drugs that target the spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) enzyme, which has been indicated as a “crossroad which all three of the brain abnormalities known to be associated with Alzheimer’s disease diverge,” states the study’s senior author, Dr. Michael Mullan,

The Sarasota researchers came across their findings while determining how the anti-hypertensive drug Nilvadipine reduces amyloid protein accumulations, the release said. Researchers realized that drug also had effects on inflammation and tau protein. In retracing the steps that led to these three factors, scientists found they all led back to SYK protein.

Paris said this discovery opens the potential for creating a single drug that helps control all three main Alzheimer characteristics. As of now, the only drugs tested work on a single pathology at a time.

“What is needed is one drug to address all three,” the release quoted him as saying.

Channel 10 news reported that a single drug that does all three could be available within five years. Clinical trials are currently under way in Europe.

Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia that impacts memory, behavior and thinking, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It is estimated to affect more than 5 million Americans and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.

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