Alzheimer’s Disease Assignment, Research Paper Example

According to Dr. Diamond, Alzheimer’s disease, clinically known as “dementias”, is characterized by “a progressive deterioration of thinking ability and of memory”. The Alzheimer’s disease is the consequence of the death of the nerve cells and the loss of their connection with the other nerve cells. Nowadays, the estimated ten million of the nation’s aging baby boomers are expected to develop Alzheimer’s or some other type of “memory-destroying neurodegenerative condition” (Clemmitt, 2008). For this reason, the importance of conduction of valid scientific researches in the field of Alzheimer’s potential cure or treatment cannot be undermined.

As Clemmitt (2008) notes, the main obstacle on the way of the researchers is the lack of federal funding, which nearly froze in the early 2004. Before that, between the years 1998 and 2003, the research funding for the National Institute of Health was doubled by Congress in the view of the “demographic tsunami” of the baby boomers heading towards the memory-loosing age, but has been flat since then. As a result of the lack of the monetary resources, the United States are being not that successful in the field of the new findings or cure and treatment proposals as the other countries like, for example, United Kingdom or Canada. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is undertaking an internationally spread effort in the field of Alzheimer’s disease research, which focuses on early detection and prevention (“Canadian Institutes of Health Research proposes major initiative on Alzheimer disease in step toward national dementia strategy”). According to CMAJ, the idea is that the international collaboration as well as funding is more likely to succeed in the field of medical research than the effort of one single country, especially in the light of the fact that Alzheimer’s is the challenge for all the countries worldwide. Dr. Alain Beaudet, the President of the CIHR notes that, on the one hand, international competition is an essential part of the research process, but, on the other, there are advantages of the combined international efforts that would enable the researchers to achieve certain results considerable faster.

Despite the considerable lack of funding, the US researches are still contributing a huge amount of effort in the study of the brain and memories. Clemmitt (2008) points out that in recent “brain-imaging studies of working memory” the researchers identified the difference in the brain activity of the adults of various age groups: in case of the young adults only one hemisphere of prefrontal cortex was active, while with the older ones, the activity was shown in both halves of the brain. The importance of the research lies in the idea of the prospective memory preserving interventions, which will be based on the above-mentioned research conclusions that the older brain is more likely to change or adapt the ways, in which it tackles memory tasks, than to remain the same. Another current research incentive mentioned by Clemmitt (2008) is in the field of cognitive decline. The research aims to explore whether the cognitive decline is an inevitable process for every aging human being or someone is able to escape it. The study is conducted by the Northwestern University’s Mesulam and will observe the mental functioning of people over the age of 80. The observation will be conducted by means of behavioral studies, brain imaging as well as after-death autopsies in order to identify the range of possible cognitive profiles for elderly. The main question behind the research is whether there is something special in the lifestyle or genes of those people, that didn’t suffer the loss of memory.

The international studies in the field of Alzheimer’s treatment haven’t yet gained break-through results, but still should be noted. Canadian Medical Association proposes promoting caregivers as an ultimate source of brain repair. As Dr. Diamond (2008) suggests, “nerve sprouting from surviving nerve cells is a key feature of repair in the diseased or damaged nervous system”. As the new sprouts connect with other surviving nerve cells, they compensate for the connections lost when nerve cells died. Normally, nerve sprouting is induces by growth factors like NFG, but there is another way as well: by means of initiated impulses in the nerve cells. Such impulses can be driven by either electrical stimulus or increased sensory stimulation coming from the social environment, especially from the people socially or physically interacting with the individual. “This means that the more of this social stimulation a person with Alzheimer’s disease gets, the more likely it is that their surviving brain cells will be induced to sprout and restore lost connections”. Dr. Diamond insists that the critical role is played by the person looking after the Alzheimer’s patient and that is it not an immediate process, as nerve sprouting needs time-consuming efforts. The above mentioned theory was not experimentally tested on humans, but there are a number of animal experiments, which seem to prove Dr. Diamond’s proposals. The experiments featured two genes studied in mice. One gene, activated by an appropriate drug, caused the nerve cells’ death just like in case of Alzheimer’s, initiating long term memory loss. As a result of the experiment it turned out that, when influenced by the enriched environment, the long term memories managed to regain, even thought nerve cells died. The conclusion behind the experiment points out that different types of stimulation can eventually restore memory in the damaged brain. The second gene, which the researchers studied, was involved in the long term memory formation. In the study process it turned out that the normally body-accumulated protein suppressed this particular gene, disabling long term memory production. The researchers succeeded in suppressing this protein and, as a result, the long term memory was facilitated even in the damaged animal brain.

It is understandable that the results of the above researches cannot be directly used on human beings, but there is still a message behind them. There is a strong hope that the long term memory production can be initiated even if the nerve cells died. The further studies are needed in order to gain human related results, so that one day a medical treatment or curable drug from Alzheimer’s can eventually be found.

In regards to the possible drug treatment of Alzheimer’s disease Clemmitt (2008) mentions that “research is proceeding”, but “drug pipeline is long and carries few guarantees”. There were nearly 225 Alzheimer’s disease drugs in some stage of development in 2006, but more than half in the stage of preclinical development (“2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures”). Research also continues in the field of increasing the speed of the Alzheimer’s disease drugs development. Researches are undertaking efforts in developing “computer assisted methods for determining early on which compounds look promising in the lab but would not pass muster as actual central-nervous system drugs because they are toxic, or the body can’t effectively absorb or metabolize them” (Clemmitt, 2008).

The study of Alzheimer’s disease is a complex and challenging study as the human brain is not a clear tablet for the researchers yet. In order to understand the types of cell bonds in the human brain, scientists are conducting numerous researches every year. One of such researches, which is closely connected with the topic of Alzheimer’s, was published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The research was triggered by the fact that “C-PiB PET has demonstrated significantly higher PiB retention in the grey matter of Alzheimer’s disease patients than in healthy controls” (Fodero-Tavoletti, Rowe, McLean, Li, Masters, Cappai, and Villemange, 2009). Though PiB retention is similar in the white matter of both the Alzheimer’s disease patients and healthy controls, the nature of its binding to white matter was still unknown, which has become the primary matter of the conducted study. As PiB can be used to assess Ab deposition, the researchers suggested that it could also facilitate further studies of neurodegenerative diseases, in which Ab could play a role (Fodero-Tavoletti, Rowe, McLean, Li, Masters, Cappai, and Villemange, 2009). The results of the research revealed that “C-PiB retention in the white matter is nonspecific and may be attributable to a slower regional clearance of the radiotracers” (Fodero-Tavoletti, Rowe, McLean, Li, Masters, Cappai, and Villemange, 2009). In other words, the PiB staining of Alzheimer’s disease patients and healthy controls brain sectors “was consistent with absence of Ab in IHC staining”, meaning that PiB binding to white matter is nonsaturable and nonspecific. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that PiB retention in the C-PiB PET studies can be attributed to “slower PiB white matter kinetics” (Fodero-Tavoletti, Rowe, McLean, Li, Masters, Cappai, and Villemange, 2009).. As one can understand, the results of such studies don’t make break-through discoveries in the field of Alzheimer’s disease treatment or cure, but, nevertheless, they uncover new areas in the human brain research that may later help to put forward news ways of research conduction or treatment findings.

As Alzheimer’s disease is the one that cannot be detected in the early stages of development, it is essential for the people, who are concerned about the potential loss of memory functions, to undergo beforehand screenings or testing. As it can be noted from “Memory Screening Offered”, the research published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that individuals who “learned through genetic testing that they possess a gene that heightens their risk for Alzheimer’s disease do not suffer any psychological harm as a result of this knowledge”. To support the above mentioned research conclusions, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America has scheduled to hold its annual National Screening Day on November 17 this year. The effort behind such an event is to offer people free memory screenings and educational support on the topic of aging and declining memory functions (“Memory Screenings Offered”). According to the article, face-to-face screenings will be conducted by professionals with the purpose of estimating individual memory capacity and levels, so that, in case of low scores, participants would be knowledgeable of the particular tendency and accumulated results. Though the results of such screenings can not be valued as valid test results, they still might be helpful in determining memory related problems in the early stages and can, therefore, help the people and their relatives to prepare themselves to the number of possible outcomes.

All in all, it cannot be doubted that the in order for the people to fight Alzheimer’s or any other neurodegenerative disease, heavy and constantly improving and advancing scientific research is needed. On the one hand, it is a rather expensive incentive, which requires great amounts of monetary inputs, though, sometimes, no break-through discoveries are achieved. But, on the other hand, as Clemmitt (2008) notes, the sum of the annual Medicare enrollee care with Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia totals $13207, in comparison to $4454 spent of the enrollee without Alzheimer’s. However, it is not only the financial aspects that should be acknowledged. As mentioned in the beginning of the paper, 10 million American baby boomers – one out of eight – is likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease in recent years. The daily care for such people is a challenging and perplexing routine, which is a burden not only for the caregivers, but for the disease sufferers as well. There is still hope among the scientists that the Alzheimer’s research will reveal new findings in the next ten years, it is just the patience and funding that are of the major importance.

References

2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures. Alzheimer’s Association. March 2008.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research proposes major initiative on Alzheimer disease in step toward national dementia strategy. (2009). CMAJ News. Canadian Medical Association and it Licensors.

Clemmitt, Marcia. (2008). Preventing Memory Loss. CQ Researcher. 13. pp. 289-312.

Dr. Diamond, Jack. (2008). A Report on Alzheimer’s Disease and Current Research. Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Fodero-Tavoletti, M., Rowe, C., McLean, C. A., Li, Q. X., Masters, S. L., Cappai, R., and Villemange, V. L. (2009). Characterization of PiB Binding to White Matter in Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias. The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. ProQuest Medical Library.

Memory Screenings Offered. The American Nurse. September/October 2009, pp. 5-6.