January is not only the first month of the year, but it is also the Alzheimer Awareness Month in Canada. While most are reflecting on their new resolution for 2024, IRCM researchers are pushing through in their daily mission to find solutions to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), by investigating new highly promising therapeutic avenues for this disease, which weighs more and more heavily on society.
The Alzheimer's Disease, a Growing Threat
AD is the most common type of dementia, accounting for 62 percent of those diagnosed. According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, the number of people with dementia worldwide is nearly doubling every 20 years. This suggests that it will reach 75 million by 2030 and 131.5 million by 2050. With the increasing elderly population, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease is also rising annually. Despite efforts by the government and private sector to support dementia patients and caregivers, the social cost continues to increase.
Setbacks and New Hopes
Unfortunately, some global pharmaceutical companies have halted Alzheimer’s trials due to the recent trial failures of several Alzheimer’s drugs in the past year. Although this news has dampened hopes for patients and their caregivers desperately waiting for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there is still plenty of ongoing research.
Amyloid beta (Aβ) is a protein known for its implication in Alzheimer’s disease. Therefore, the currently developed drugs target amyloid beta (Aβ) and inhibit the enzyme that produces amyloid beta, or use an amyloid beta antibody to remove Aβ plaques. However, no effect has been observed using these avenues. The current challenge facing AD research is to determine why it they are not effective in treating AD, even after amyloid beta has been removed.
A different approach, promising results
Nayoung Yi, A doctoral student under the supervision of Dr. Hideto Takahashi, director of the Synapse Development and Plasticity Research Unit at the IRCM, uses a different approach. Her work aims to eliminate amyloid beta as well as restoring impaired synaptic functions caused by amyloid beta, thereby ameliorating cognitive deficits, learning abilities, and memory. The great news is that meaningful results have already been obtained at the cellular level.
We believe that by conducting various experiments and behavioural tests with transgenic mice produced in our laboratory, we can approach the development of a treatment for dementia. Our lab also plans to determine whether a protein that competitively inhibits amyloid beta has a protective effect, even in the early stages of Alzheimer's. Proving the preventive effect could provide great hope for patients suffering from dementia, their families, and many others, explained Nayoung Yi, who received a prestigious grant from the Alzheimer Society of Canada in 2022 to support her excellent research work.
This research thus holds significant importance as developing effective therapeutics is the most reliable and effective way to alleviate the personal and social costs, and burdens of this dreadful disease.
Stay tuned for new developments and keep supporting Alzheimer’s research at the IRCM!
