Marika Chrisanthopoulos
AP Biology Review
February 3, 2013
Lancaster University. "Treatment to prevent Alzheimer's disease
moves a step closer." ScienceDaily,
1 Feb. 2013. Web. 3 Feb. 2013.
The
article "Treatment to prevent Alzheimer's disease moves a step closer”
highlights the creation of a new drug that was developed and may enter clinical
trials in a few years that could prevent the early stages of Alzheimer’s
disease. Alzheimer’s is the more common type of dementia, and begins when a
protein called amyloid-β starts to clump together in masses in the brain,
resulting in the damaging of nerve cells, leading to the overall memory loss
and confusion. The amount of people affected by Alzheimer’s disease is expected
to get a lot larger, and is expected to double from today’s standards by 2050;
by this time, one in three people over 65 years of age will die with dementia.
The article describes the successes of Professor David Allsop and Dr. Mark
Taylor at Lancaster University; these two men have created a new drug which can
reduce the number of senile plaques in the brain by a third, as well as more
than doubling the number of new nerve cells in a particular region of the brain
associated with memory. The drug is also supposed to reduce the amount of brain
inflammation and oxidative damage associated with dementia. In order to test
out the drug and see all the positive as well as negative effects, the two
doctors used transgenic mice containing two mutant human genes linked to
inherited forms of Alzheimer’s so that they would develop some of the changes
associated with the illness. The results of this test indicated that the drug
had a positive influence on the mice; “the amount of plaque in the brain had
been reduced by a third and this could be improved if we have a larger dose of
the drug” (Professor Allsop). The drug must be tested further, but in the
future, doctors hope to give the drug to people with mild symptoms of memory
loss, before they actually developed full-on Alzheimer’s.
The
topic presented in this article is very significant to what we have been
studying in class and to my life specifically. We have recently been learning
about genes and mutations, and what our DNA means in developing our full
characteristics as humans in the long run. We have been identifying some of the
traits that have been programmed in our genes, such as having a chromosomal
defect such as Down’s Syndrome, as well as those that can be affected by
environmental triggers, such as getting lung cancer as a result of smoking. Alzheimer’s
disease, a form of dementia, damages and kills brain cells. The causes of this
disease is not completely understood, but scientists believe that for most
people, it results from a combination of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental
factors that affect the brain over time. This article and its components also
relate to my life specifically because my grandfather has Alzheimer’s and my
grandmother is developing early stages of dementia; I hope that in the near
future, this drug and its testing progresses and is successful so that it can
help these two people in my life and those in the lives of others that are
suffering because of this disease.
The
author of this article was very descriptive in accounting for all the details
about the drug, as well as the tests performed on it and the results that came
out of the tests. The article was full of information regarding what
Alzheimer’s is, and how the drug would help to prevent the disease as well as
reduce the effects that it has on humans. It included some statistics about the
disease, and how in the future the amount of people diagnosed with it will
rise. The only thing that the author could have done a bit better was to
possibly give an allotted time for the drug and its manufacturing to go into progression;
when are the scientists predicting on starting the sale of the drug when all
the tests are done, if the results are positive? Overall, the article was very
well written and informative, resulting in my learning more about this disease
and the results it has on the human brain and on individuals in general.
Millions of people across the world are experiencing Alzheimer’s disease and it’s been nice to have read this article to know how to prevent this kind disease.
ReplyDeleteAlzheimer’s clinic Toronto
DeleteI enjoyed reading Marika’s review of the article, "Treatment to prevent Alzheimer's disease moves a step closer." She did a very good job in describing what Alzheimer’s disease really is and how scientists are attempting to find a cure for it. One aspect of the review that was particularly well presented was how Alzheimer’s disease comes to be. It begins when a protein called amyloid-β starts to clump together in masses in the brain, resulting in the damaging of nerve cells, which causes the overall memory loss and confusion. One other interesting fact that was well presented was how effective dementia is. Estimations are that in 2050, one in three people over the age of 65 will die with dementia. One last aspect that was described well was what the scientists did to help make this progress. Dr. Taylor and Professor Allsop of Lancaster University created a drug which can reduce the number of senile plaques in the brain by a third, as well as more than doubling the number of new nerve cells in a particular region of the brain associated with memory.
One way I would say this article could be improved would be a more in depth analysis of the symptoms of ALS, because I understand how lethal it is, but not exactly how it shuts one’s body down. I would also improve this review by providing background about how much research and experimentation went into making this particular drug successful.
One thing that I learned from reading this article review is how useful animals are in drug testing. In particular the mouse or rat, which was used in this specific experiment to help observe the positive and negative effects of the drug. Mice were also used Griffith’s experiment in which he used drugs to determine which was the transforming factor.