Enzyme to restore back memory in Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease, a situation in which memory is lost, can be cured by a newly found treatment, which repairs the brain cell in order to disembarrass it from the amyloid beta proteins that are suspected of contributing to the disease.

On Thursday, research was conducted on mice, which showed sure shot results that will thwart some Alzheimer’s memory problems.

While fiddling with enzymes in the brain of the mice, who were afflicted with the rough equivalent of Alzheimer's in humans, Scientists were able to restore back the mice’s memory.

Uch-L1 is the enzyme which is low in the patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. Research conducted by Columbia University's Bing Gong, M.D., and colleagues, increased the level of this enzyme to restore the memory of plagued mice. The results yielded success and they say that the study has opened new doors in the field of drugs and therapies to cure the memory lapse disease.

Dr. Michael Shelanski, director of the Alzheimer's Research Center at Columbia University, and also a co-investigator in the research, said till now there is no evidence if same will work on humans or not but they are hoping for the best. He is happy to atleast start a research in the field of new drugs and therapies for the disease and says that it is the every essence of new discoveries to follow.

Lot of research has being going on in this field, but no sure shot cure has been devised. Almost 4.5 million Americans are affected with this disease. As more and more people approach towards old age, the number is likely to soar in the coming years. Shelanski said that some drugs are available but their potency is limited.

Previous findings had suggested the role of Uch-L1 in the memory process and the decrease in it's number causing Alzheimer’s disease. The present research supports this finding and Scientists say that a brain can be restored with memory by injecting the lost enzyme back into its place.

It has been widely assumed in Alzheimer's disease that many problems comes from the fact that proteins within the cell do not fold correctly, and therefore don't function correctly.

Research was conducted on healthy mice, without any brain plagues. They were all put in a cage and taught to avoid certain places where they would get a mild shock.

The mice were then deprived of the enzyme by giving shots. It was found that they had lost their memories completely and could not avoid the places where they were taught not to go.

The scientists then developed a protein that included Uch-L1 and injected it into the mice. After a few days, the scientists noted that the mice, who were earlier plagued with brain disease, had redeveloped their memories and when put in the cage, were able to avoid the places in the cage where they were taught not to go earlier.

It was also found out that the enzyme does not destroy the amyloid beta proteins, which, according to the scientists, play an important role in the physiological development of the body.

The researchers said that the enzyme needs much more study before it's ready for human tests.