Is Alzheimer to be cured?
Alzheimer’s disease manifests itself not only in the brains, but also in the rest of the body. In an early stage there are already biomarkers present in the skin. It’s possible to find these biomarkers with a simple and painless test. This has been confirmed by American scientists of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the: PNAS.
Brain Tissue
Until now Alzheimer’s disease could only be diagnosed when brain tissue is investigated under a microscope. But the problem with this method is that brain tissue is collected from deceased patients. In an early stage it’s hard to see the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease or even a temporary and harmless kind of memory loss. But medicines that slow down the progress of Alzheimer’s disease will in this case have the most effect.
Bradykinine
The investigation of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute in Maryland concerned the response of skin samples of deceased patients on bradykinin, a substance that causes inflammations. Two enzymes, MAP kinase Erk 1 and 2, appeared to react different in the skin of people that had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The biggest difference was discovered among people that died of Alzheimer’s disease in an early stage.
It isn’t clear yet how long it will take for science to deliver a practical test, and how that is going to be ethically defended. After all there isn’t at this present time any cure found yet for Alzheimer’s disease.
