A New Light into Alzheimer’s Treatment, Literally
, UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It goes without saying that Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects its victims in the most detrimental way. Some may even argue that Alzheimer’s has an even bigger effect on the loved ones of its victims. Nonetheless, the deadly, memory-loss-causing disease and form of dementia takes a huge emotional toll on the five million Americans it affects and those that know them. Nicholas Sparks, author of the famed movie The Notebook, once said, “Alzheimer's... It is a barren disease, as empty and lifeless as a desert. It is a thief of hearts and souls and memories.”
In The Notebook, Sparks illustrates just how barren and heartbreaking the disease really is. The story revolves around an elderly man and his elderly wife, who has dementia and is in a nursing home. The man, Noah, reads a love story from his notebook to his wife Allie. The story tells the tale of how the two fell in love, and at a point in the movie, Allie realizes that the story is about her. She shouts, “It was us!” crying and hugging Noah. Unfortunately, not even five minutes after this, Allie relapses and forgets it all. “Why did you call me darling? I don’t know you. What’s going on here?” Allie shouts. Doctors then give Allie a sedative shot while Noah cries in despair, helpless. Eventually the two die holding onto each other. What the film does is demonstrate how extensive Alzheimer’s and dementia’s effects are.
While drug-related and non-drug-related treatments for Alzheimer’s exist, the disease remains cureless. Scientists across the globe have been conducting research to learn more about Alzheimer’s and how to better treat it. A recent breakthrough in treating the disease comes from scientists and researchers from Rice University and the University of Miami.
“Alzheimer's disease is one of the leading causes of death with no certain cure at this point. Our focus was to utilize metal complexes to study amyloid beta, the reason being that they have not been looked at enough,” said lead author and Rice alumnus Amir Aliyan.
Researchers at Rice University invented a probe that lights up when it binds to amyloid beta peptide that has been misfolded. Amyloid beta refers to peptides of a specific group of amino acids that are associated with Alzheimer’s as the primary component of amyloid plaques found in the brains of patients with the disease. Amino acids are organic compounds that make up peptides, and multiple peptides, or polypeptides, make up proteins.
Aliyan, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Tarbiat Modares University in Iran, and the researchers identified a specific binding site on the protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“To find out a proper binding site of drug is important for disease treatment,” said co-author and Rice graduate student Bo Jiang.
Rice chemist Angel Martí found the site by using a rhenium-based complex that binds to fibrils of misfolded amyloid beta peptide. The complex pinpoints the location of a hydrophobic, water fearing, cleft, which could possibly serve as a drug target. When amyloid beta peptides properly fold, they expose their hydrophilic, water loving, residues to water, but when these peptides misfold, they expose their hydrophobic residues, creating the cleft.
The lab, however, discovered more than just the binding site on the protein. They discovered that the probe catalyzes oxidation of the protein when illuminated in a way that might prevent the protein from irritating the brains of patients.
“We are using the photoluminescence feature of some kinds of metallic complexes to study the structure of amyloid beta peptide and plan to figure out which sites can be modified,” said Jiang.
Drugs that affect amyloid beta peptides could exist in the future but before this can happen, scientists need to know how drugs bind and interact with fibrils. This research gives insight into just that.
Scientists believe that if the oxidation prevents the fibrils from aggregating further into the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, then a strategy to stop aggregation before Alzheimer’s symptoms appear could be employed. Light activation gives researchers complete control over oxidation rates.
“Long excited state lifetime of the metal complexes were expected, but photo oxidation of the peptide by the metal complex was not expected. So it is like a black box, and you may or may not discover interesting characteristics. Nevertheless, we believe that they deserve to be looked at,” said Aliyan.
Although these characteristics must be looked at further, this research provides a light, figuratively and literally, for Alzheimer’s treatment and maybe one day, a cure for this tragic and fatal disease.
