ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603140078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Orlando Sentinel
In a pioneering series of studies, a team of Florida researchers will report today that problems in blood vessels supplying the brain may be at the root of Alzheimer's disease.
This radical new way of regarding Alzheimer's ultimately could constitute a transformation in how scientists approach treatments and possible ways of prevention. Much of the research focus now is on the inexorable death of the brain's nerve cells.
If further studies validate the Florida findings, treatments can be developed to protect blood vessels, and in turn help preserve critical cells involved in memory, judgment and feelings of love and hate.
Writing in the scientific journal Nature, Dr. Michael Mullen of the University of South Florida outlines a scenario as compelling as any whodunit in the mystery of what triggers Alzheimer's.
``Mostly we had been focusing on the neurons [the brain's nerve cells] and trying to keep them alive,'' he said. ``But if we can keep the [blood vessels] alive, it might be little more accessible and a little easier to treat.''
Mullen and his colleagues hypothesize that a protein called beta amyloid, which long has been associated with the disorder, clogs and constricts blood vessels in the brain. This causes the release of an often-toxic form of oxygen known as free radicals.
Once the vessels are constricted, the flow of healthy oxygen is inhibited and the roving radicals devastate the brain's nerve cells.
As the process continues, amyloid deposits become scattered throughout the brain, and the debris of damaged nerve cells accumulates. Together they create the ``plaques and tangles'' that have been associated with Alzheimer's for nearly a century.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive degenerative neurological disorder that wipes out memory, judgment and all sense of self and time. An estimated 4 million Americans, most of them 65 and older, are affected.
Dr. Jonathan S. Stamler of Duke University's division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Cell Biology, said the Florida discovery eventually could be considered a landmark.
``It appears that on face value they potentially have a major discovery, but I have to be very cautious in saying that,'' said Stamler, who wrote a commentary in Nature assessing the Florida findings.
The USF laboratory studies, he said, will have to be duplicated by other scientists before the concept of blood-vessel damage is widely accepted.
Mullen said the vascular link does not rule out inheritance as a factor in the disorder.
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