Reported cases of people living with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Researchers continue to make advances in the fight against the disease, but a cure still has not been found. However, a new breakthrough could be a major game changer.
Dr. Rudolph Tanzi and Dr. Doo Kim at the Mass General Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a way in which scientists and researchers can watch Alzheimer’s disease in a lab dish. In the past, scientists used animals to test new drugs because they could model human conditions for weeks or months. However, the two factors that researchers know contribute to the disease—the buildup of the protein amyloid, and the toxic web of another protein called tau—have been impossible to generate in animals, thus limiting the testing ability on Alzheimer’s disease.
“In this new system that we call ‘Alzheimer’s-in-a-dish,’we’ve been able to show for the first time that amyloid deposition is sufficient to lead to tangles and subsequent cell death,”said Tanzi.
There are many benefits of having the ability to view the disease in a lab dish. While autopsies show the two proteins mentioned above as being present in the brains of those that have passed away from the disease, doctors have always debated which came first. With this breakthrough these scientists have been able to show, without a doubt, that amyloid is the first step in the Alzheimer’s process, followed by tau tangles. This will lead to multitudes of new tests that previously were impossible.
Doctors are now able to move away from using animals as test subjects for new drugs. You simply cannot completely recreate human conditions in animals. This new breakthrough also allows researchers to test numerous specific symptoms of the disease in a lab dish.
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