In a new study on the Alzheimer disease (AD), scientists found out that the memory problems of the patients were closely linked to the reduced levels of an enzyme called EphB2 in their memory centers of their brains. Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in San Francisco have been researching about this and they used gene therapy in order to alter the EphB2 levels in the memory centers of the mice. Scientists discovered that normalizing and improving the levels of this enzyme completely fixed the memory of the mice since reducing the levels in healthy mice gave them memory problems similar to the problems in patients with AD.
There is an important process in the body called neurotransmission, which is the communication between neurons (brain cells). In patients with AD, this communication is damaged by a protein called amyloid which is built up in abnormally high levels and it is thought to cause the disease. How these proteins disrupt neurotransmission is still unknown.
"EphB2 is a really cool molecule that acts as both a receptor and an enzyme," said Moustapha Cisse, PhD, lead author of the study. "We thought it might be involved in memory problems of AD because it is a master regulator of neurotransmission and its brain levels are decreased in the disease."
Also, increasing the levels of the EphB2 enzyme in the neurons of mice prevented neurotransmission deficits, memory problems, and behavioral abnormalities. Scientists discovered that the amyloid protein bind with this enzyme directly causing its reduction. This helps explain why in the Alzheimer's disease the levels of EphB2 are decreased.
"Based on our results, we think that blocking amyloid proteins from binding to EphB2 and enhancing EphB2 levels or functions with drugs might be of benefit in AD." said Mucke. "We are excited about these possibilities and look forward to pursuing them in future studies."
What interested me about this article was that it is about a topic that fascinates me a lot, health and medicine. Even though I do not want to be a doctor or a scientist that researches about medicine, it is a topic I like reading about. I think that gene therapy is an interesting process used to research about certain topics, in this case about the EphB2 enzyme, and to treat diseases. The Alzheimer's disease is a very dangerous one that has caused the deaths of many people, and I think it is very important to find a cure or at least a treatment for it. Many useful things have been discovered about the disease that lead to the discovery of the cure. I hope that in the near future, scientists will keep on researching about the disease and find a cure for it.
