*October 17th, 2010 * A team of neuroscientists has discovered that they might be able to eliminate the debilitating side effects caused by a promising Alzheimer's drug by stimulating the brain's nicotine receptors.
Hey-Kyoung Lee, associate professor in the University of Maryland's department of biology, and her team, including Johns Hopkins University researchers, have previously demonstrated that eliminating or knocking out the BACE1 (ß-secretase) enzyme in laboratory mice caused some of the test animals to become confused and aggressive. Scientists believed that overproduction of a peptide called amyloid-beta in the brain is the cause of Alzheimer's and are developing drug treatments that prevent the action of the enzyme BACE1, which produces amyloid-beta. "The mice exhibit signs of schizophrenia and memory loss when you block the enzyme. BACE1 is a very promising drug target, but you have to overcome these obviously debilitating side effects to effectively treat Alzheimer's disease," Lee said. "By stimulating the Alpha-7 receptor with nicotine, we were able to recover normal brain function. We are very hopeful that this will be a way to overcome the deficits seen with the BACE-1 knockouts," she added. Calcium triggers the release of neurotransmitters, the chemicals which transmit signals from a neuron to a target cell across a synapse. The research team found that nicotine activated the uptake of calcium, and thus the neurotransmitter released mechanism. "After treatment with nicotine," said Lee, "the mice released normal amounts of the neurotransmitter as seen in brains of normal animals. "If you tag along nicotine or anything that could activate this receptor along with the BACE1 inhibitor, then you could probably recover the function better," she said. "It is an exciting development because nicotine is an already known drug that could be easily used therapeutically with Alzheimer's treatment." A paper describing their breakthrough appeared in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_nicotine-could-play-role-in-alzheimer-s-disease-therapy_1452429 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
