Akshi Kamboj (intern journalist): In breakthrough research led by the Queen Mary University of London, a gene has been discovered that can naturally suppress the signs of Alzheimer’s disease in brain cells. a new rapid drug screening system has also been developed that has the potential to delay or prevent the disease. It was also published in the journal molecular psychiatry.
The main challenge in conducting the clinical trials of the Alzheimer’s drug is that the participants need to have symptoms, but by the time the symptoms are evident, it is usually too late, as most of the brain cells have already died by then.
With this drawback, the current way of testing the workability of this drug is by identifying participants who are at a higher risk of developing this disease in the near future. for example, people with down syndrome; are at a 70% risk of developing this disease.
In the research which was conducted, scientists collected hair cells from people with down syndrome, reprogrammed them to become stem cells which were then directed to become stem cells in a dish.
“This work represents a remarkable achievement, as this is the first cell-based system that has the full-trio of Alzheimer’s pathologies, without any artificial gene overexpression. This system opens up the prospect for screening for new drugs aimed at delaying or even preventing Alzheimer’s before neuronal death starts”.
Lead researcher professor Dean Nizetic from the Queen Mary University of London commented.
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