Alzheimer’s Disease currently impacts an estimated 5.3 milion Americans, and as the Baby Boomer generation ages, that number will surely grow. There has been a lot of research on both the causes and potential treatment of Alzheimer’s.
Recently, researchers at the University of Southampton, in England, completed a study that showed that a chemical that reduces inflammation in the brain may be a key in the fight against Alzheimer’s.
In a study that was published in the medical journal Brain on January 8, 2016, researchers led by Dr. Diego Gomez-Nicola found that an overactive immune system can result in chronic inflammation in the brain. Inflammation in the brain has previously been linked to Alzheimer’s in other studies.
In one of the experiments, the reserachers examined both healthy brains and those of Alzheimer’s sufferers. The brains of those with Alzheimer’s had higher levels of microglia, or immune cells, that are associated with brain inflammation. As the level of Alzheimer’s increased, so did the number of microglia.
In another experiment, mice that had been induced with an Alzheimer’s-like condition were given a chemical known as GW2580, which inhibits the growth of microglia, and this reduced memory loss and other Alzheimer’s associated issues in the test mice.
“These findings are as close to evidence as we can get to show that this particular pathway is active in the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” Gomez-Nicola stated. “Now is the time to progress this into a clinical set-up as soon as possible.” Other Alzheimer’s researchers are hailing the study as an important step in finding a cure for the disease.
The researchers think that diet and a lifestyle that inhibits neuro-inflammation could also be critical to the Alzheimer’s fight, but more study is needed.
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