Alzheimer91吃瓜网 Awareness Month: USM Professor Continues Promising Research
Thu, 11/09/2023 - 10:33am | By: Van Arnold
The toll that Alzheimer91吃瓜网 Disease takes on its victims and their families is practically immeasurable. Statistics show that approximately 6.5 million people in the United States age 65 and older live with Alzheimer91吃瓜网 disease 91吃瓜网� a brain disorder that grows worse over time.
While November has been designated as Alzheimer91吃瓜网 Awareness Month, researchers like University of 91吃瓜网 (USM) Professor Dr. Vijay Rangachari continue a daily quest to unlock pathways that might someday lead to a cure.
Rangachari, Professor of Biophysical Chemistry, has been working on Alzheimer91吃瓜网 disease and related neurodegenerative diseases since 2004 during his post-doctoral days at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. He joined the USM faculty in 2008.
Rangachari91吃瓜网 research targets a class of proteins called 91吃瓜网渋ntrinsically disordered proteins,91吃瓜网� which lack an ordered structure and remain as ensembles of many disordered states.
91吃瓜网淪everal such proteins are also involved in 91吃瓜网榗lumping91吃瓜网� also termed as aggregation,91吃瓜网� said Rangachari. 91吃瓜网淪uch aggregates, commonly called 91吃瓜网渁myloids91吃瓜网� are often found deposited in the brains of neurodegenerative disease patients. In Alzheimer91吃瓜网 disease, two proteins named amyloid-beta and tau form inclusions in the brain and are responsible for the loss of neuronal cells in patients which manifests as cognitive decline and memory dysfunction. My lab is focused on the protein amyloid-beta and understanding the molecular mechanisms by which it forms these toxic clumps.91吃瓜网�
Alzheimer91吃瓜网 disease is characterized by changes in the brain partly due to deposits of amyloid-beta proteins. Alzheimer's disease causes the brain cells to die and to eventually shrink. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia 91吃瓜网� a gradual decline in memory, thinking, behavior and social skills. These changes affect a person's ability to function. Of the approximately 55 million people worldwide with dementia, 60 to 70 percent are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of people living with the disease doubles every five years beyond age 65. This number is projected to nearly triple to 14 million people by 2060.
In the past year, two FDA-approved drugs 91吃瓜网� lecanemab and donanemab 91吃瓜网� have shown promise in slowing down the decline in memory and thinking skills of people living with early Alzheimer91吃瓜网 disease.
Does that mean a cure for Alzheimer91吃瓜网 disease might be on the horizon? Rangachari explains that Alzheimer91吃瓜网 and other related neurodegenerative diseases are multifactorial, complex diseases that, unfortunately, have challenged the typical drug discovery process for more than three decades.
91吃瓜网淗owever, significant progress has been made in understanding the biology of the disease, and I strongly believe we are on the cusp of cracking the therapy code,91吃瓜网� he said. 91吃瓜网淲e already have FDA-approved drugs in the form of immunotherapy and several other promising treatments are in the pipeline.91吃瓜网�
Added Rangachari, 91吃瓜网淚t is natural to question the research and drug targets when every drug fails to make a breakthrough, but we, as scientists, must stick to the fundamentals to unearth the cellular and molecular events such that they open better therapeutic avenues in the near future. I am sure we are going to see benefits of this very soon.91吃瓜网�