Alzheimer's 'is brain diabetes'
>> Tuesday, February 03, 2009
The most common form of dementia may be closely related to another common disease of old-age - type II diabetes, say scientists.
Treating Alzheimer's with the hormone insulin, or with drugs to boost its effect, may help patients, they claim.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports insulin could protect against damage to brain cells key to memory.
UK experts said the find could be the basis of new drug treatments.
The relationship between insulin and brain disease has been under scrutiny since doctors found evidence that the hormone was active there.
The latest study, joint research between Northwestern University in the US and the University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, looked at the effects of insulin on proteins called ADDLs, which build up in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and cause damage.
They took neurons - brain cells - from the hippocampus, a part of the brain with a pivotal role in memory formation.
These were treated with insulin and a drug called rosiglitazone, given to type II diabetics to increase the effect of the hormone on cells.
After this, the cells were far less susceptible to damage when exposed to ADDLs, suggesting that insulin was capable of blocking their effects.
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