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A pill to preserve the flagging memory?

Controlling Alzheimer's with a daily dose is closer with new research.

By Tom Valeo, Special to the Times
Published August 28, 2007

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By Tom Valeo

Special to the Times

Controlling Alzheimer's disease may soon become as simple as controlling cholesterol, according to a leading researcher.

"If your cholesterol profile is out of whack, treatment with a simple statin drug can reduce that risk," said Dr. Steve Younkin, a neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. "Our goal is to develop a similar kind of testing and treatment to keep the brain in balance."

Younkin was instrumental in developing the prevailing theory that blames Alzheimer's on a protein known as amyloid-beta 42, or AB42, produced in the brain. AB42 has a tendency to form clumps of plaque, and Younkin thinks this process begins long before symptoms appear.

"Something happens that causes too much amyloid to be made, or prevents it from being cleared normally," Younkin said.

Once AB42 starts to accumulate, it becomes toxic and promotes the breakdown of memory and other functions. A drug that slows accumulation of AB42, or prevents its production, would help millions avoid Alzheimer's.

"Two enzymes, known as beta secretase and gamma secretase, cut the amyloid beta protein in the brain," he said. "Inhibition of either enzyme would reduce the amount of AB42 produced."

Several drugs being tested are designed to do that. Flurizan and a drug known only as LY450132 inhibit the action of gamma secretase, thereby lowering the production of AB42. Alzhemed disrupts the accumulation of AB42.

While you're waiting for a drug to prevent Alzheimer's, you can resist the disease by exercising your brain more, according to Elizabeth Stine-Morrow, a professor at the University of Illinois who has spent 20 years in the study of learning throughout the life span.

Age-related changes in the brain can make some activities, such as reading, require more effort, Stine-Morrow said, "but effort is a good thing. Every time you allocate effort, it increases your capacity to do that thing in the future. And that becomes even more important as we get older."

For example, older readers may need to allocate more time at the beginning of a story or book to build a "situation model" that provides a vivid sense of the setting and characters. This will help them process new information later. "Page-turners are page-turners later in a book or story," Stine-Morrow said. "They're rarely page-turners early on."

Freelancer Tom Valeo writes about medical issues. Write to him in care of Pulse, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail features@sptimes.com.

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[Last modified August 27, 2007, 17:29:57]