The life of the brain: The promise of restoration (part 3)

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thestar.com

Kenneth Kidd
Feature Writer
DALLAS-And if there's a research community that could use a dose of very good news, it's the Alzheimer's crowd.

Roughly 500,000 Canadians over the age of 65, about one in 11, now suffer from dementia, more than half of those as a result of Alzheimer's disease.

By 2038, the number of people with dementia is projected to more than double as the huge baby boom generation moves squarely into its sunset years. (In Canada, the oldest baby boomers turn 63 this year, while those at the absolute peak of the boom are turning 49 and 50.)

Put another way, within a generation, roughly one in three Canadian households will have an extended family member suffering from dementia.

Progressive and ultimately fatal, Alzheimer's can be as emotionally draining for family members as it is confusing and debilitating for those afflicted with the disease.

The other dispiriting fact is how research into Alzheimer's is so far adhering to the old undergraduate mantra: the more we discover, the more we realize how much we don't know.

First described in 1906 by a German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer, the disease kills off neurons and the connections between them, resulting in the familiar loss of memory and language skills.

As Alzheimer's moves to other parts of the brain, confusion, mood swings, irritability and social withdrawal often ensue.

Two proteins, beta amyloid and tau, have so far been identified as the leading culprits in bringing about the death of cells. Both proteins occur naturally in healthy brains — even if the precise role of beta amyloid is uncertain — but something happens to tilt the balance.

Enzymes normally help clear away excess beta amyloid. In the brains of Alzheimer's patients, however, beta amyloid molecules start sticking together to form toxic clumps and, eventually, larger agglomerations called plaques.

Tau is a bit trickier in that it normally performs some essential tasks, such as maintaining what amounts to the transport system that ferries needed chemicals between the body of the cell and its nerve endings.

With Alzheimer's, the tau instead starts to pile up in thread-like tangles, effectively choking the cell to death.

Many researchers believe beta amyloid also plays a role in developing these tangles, that it has a sort of cascading effect.

But with Alzheimer's, things can get...more next time on dementia views about The life of the brain: The promise of restoration