It's promising to treat Alzheimer's disease using gene therapy

Recently, a study from the Imperial College of Technology in London, England, has provided new possibilities for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease through recombinant human proteins. The researchers said their mice experiments showed that gene therapy may be successful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researcher Magdalena Sasite participating in the study of Imperial College London said that they used the modified lentiviral vector to inject a gene called PGC1-α into the memory region of the mouse brain. These mice just began to develop early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The results showed that this therapy prevented the accumulation of β-amyloid in the brain of mice, which is thought to cause brain cell death and was closely related to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers said that after treatment with gene therapy for 4 months, few amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's disease existed in these mice brain. In the task-testing of memory, these treated mice behaved as well as healthy mice. In addition, their brain memory region also showed no loss of brain cells.

Genetic factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Preston Estepp, director of Gerontology Research of "Personal Genome Project" of Harvard University School of Medicine and the author of the book Longevity of the Gene, said, "There are two most significant genes. They are apolipoprotein E (APOE) and amyloid precursor protein (APP)."

"More and more research evidence suggests that APOE is responsible for transporting iron into the brain. With the increase in iron accumulation, APP protein is also increasing to protect the brain cells and tissues. Then, the special cells that function as cleaners begin to work. A small portion of the APP will be cut off and discarded, and the abandoned part is β-amyloid protein, which is the culprit of formation of brain age spots. The enzymes which play cutting role play other roles in the cells, but the APP cut on the human body does not make any sense and may even cause collateral damage to the human body. With the accumulation of β-amyloid, functional brain cells will be killed and replaced," Estepp made the above explanation for the interaction of APOE and APP genes with iron.

Estepp suggested that we should pay more attention to the iron content of food. "For normal women, 18mg of iron can provide them with 100% of the daily intake. For other adults, the general daily 8mg of iron can be met," Estepp also said, "There are individual differences in iron uptake efficiency. In addition to the iron content of the food and the reasonable control of the intake, we can also monitor the key biomarkers for iron, including serum iron, serum ferritin, hemoglobin and so on.” Flarebio offers recombinant proteins of good quality such as recombinant Itgb2 at great prices.