Latest discoveries may offer new tactics to impede Alzheimer’s progression.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University have established that the so called “longevity gene” can assist in slowing down age associated reductions in brain utility in elder adults. They are hurriedly working to develop medications, which will mimic the genes actions as a means of warding off Alzheimer’s disease.
The Einstein College report was recently released in the latest edition [Jan. 13th] of the journal of the American Medical Association.
According to the expert researchers, the majority of clinical research directed at Alzheimer’s disease is concentrated on the factors that cause the illness or increase the likelihood someone will contract the disease. One of the senior study authors offered a for instance of this partiality in the research, citing the APOE ε4, the gene modification implicated in cholesterol metabolism that has been proven to raise the odds of contracting Alzheimer’s in those people who are carriers of the gene.
Rather than proceed in the same investigative bent, Einstein scientists turned that approach around and began to concentrate on a genetic aspect that defends the host against age linked diseases, including the ones involving memory impairment and also Alzheimer’s disease.
While conducting a study in 2003, this same research team recognized the cholesterol ester transfer protein or [CETP] gene variation and now referred to as the – longevity gene. The gene discovery in a populace consisting of Ashkenazi Jews caused quite a stir in the medical research community, which still reverberates today. This encouraging CETP modified gene raises blood volumes of high density lipoprotein [HDL or good cholesterol] and also ends up as above average sized HDL and low density lipoprotein LDL particles.
The current study researchers theorized that this CETP longevity gene could perhaps be linked to less cognitive reduction as individual’s progress in age. In order to verify this hypothesis, the team observed results from five hundred twenty three contributors from the Einstein Aging Study, a continuous government financed program, which follows a socially diverse population of senior adults living in the Bronx for twenty five years.
When the study commenced, the well over five hundred contributors, all over the age of seventy or more, were mentally healthy with good awareness, they had their blood work analyzed to see which variation of the CETP gene they carried. For four more years on average they were tested each year to evaluate the amount of cognitive deterioration had set in, the number of new Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis’ had occurred and other differences.
They realized the individuals with two replica of the longevity gene variation of CETP experienced a slower decrease and a lessened chance of contracting both dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. According to the lead author of the study report, in particular, the people who carried two copies of the favorable CETP gene variation had a seventy percent decrease in their chances of contracting Alzheimer’s disease versus the contributors who did not carry any copies of the gene variation.
The positive gene variation modifies CETP so the protein will not do its job as well as it should. There are medications under development that replicate this action upon the CETP protein. These agents need to be evaluated to determine their capability for promoting positive aging and their ability to safeguard against Alzheimer’s disease.
Sat, Jan 16, 2010
Anti Aging, Health And Aging, Longevity