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Katharine Frost 5/5/09 Non-hereditary alzheimers disease and the possible treatments effects of anti-oxidants Today over fifteen million people suffer from Alzheimer's in the entire world, and the cost of this on the economy equals one percent of the gross national product ( Crowther, 2006 ) One in ten people over 65 years of age, and forty percent of people over 85 years of age have Alzheimer’s disease. ( Bahr, 2006 ) Right now, 26 million people worldwide have this disease, and over 15 million Americans will be affected by the year 2050. ( Segal and Wayne, 2009 ) Alzheimer's disease is is a disease of the nerve cells in the cerebral cortex that causes brain atrophy and dementia. ( Shenk, 2001 ) Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a serious brain disorder that impacts daily living through memory loss and cognitive changes. Chemical and structural changes in the brain gradually destroy the ability to create, remember, learn, reason, and relate to others. ( Segal and Wayne, 2009 ) The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are caused by a specific peptide , a small protein called Ab, that accumulates in patients with Alzheimer's disease has. ( Segal and Wayne, 2009) The Ab gets deposition in the brain and this results in the death of neurons which then causes the loss of cognitive function. However very few drugs, and no really effective ones have been developed yet. ( Crowther, 2006 ) Neurofibrary tangles are also what causes the symptoms of Alzheimer's. The ab peptide (which makes amyloid plaques), and the neurofibrary tangles build up in various parts of the brain, mainly the hippocampus (the memory part of the brain ). Recent studies using animal model organisms have shown that the Amyloid plaques build up before the neurofibrary tangles. ( Bahr, 2006 ) Drosophila make a good model organism for Alzheimer's studies because unlike many other insects, drosophila ages gradually over its lifespan, Also although humans have twice as many genes as flies, many of the genes found in flies are the genes that diseases occur on in humans. Scientists such as Damien Crowther are trying to find cures for the disease by using Drosophila, by giving the fly the gene for the human Ab peptide, to find out which genes when turned on, or off, can make the fly resistant to the toxic effects of the Ab peptide. The flies produce the toxic peptide in their brains and suffer consequences that resemble the human disease. As the Ab peptide accumulates in flies' brains they exhibit changes in their behavior and impairment in their everyday activities (the flies do not climb up their tubes normally) and their life span is shortened. ( Crowther, 2006) Alzheimers disease can be either hereditary or non-hereditary. The gene that causes Alzheimers is the APOE4 gene. People who inherit one copy of this gene are four times more likely to develop Alzheimer's, and people that inherit two copies of the APOE4 gene are ten times more likely to develop Alzheimer's later in life. It is thought that around 75 percent of Alzheimer's patients suffer from the genetically transmitted kind ( Behkne, 1978 ) Recent studies that have looked into the non-hereditary form of Alzheimer's have shown that the irreversible neurological degeneration associated with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases may be the consequence Of oxidative stress, which is the imbalance of antioxidants and pro-oxidants in cells. This imbalance results in a to many harmful oxygen-containing molecules that can cause damage to proteins. ( Korschun, 2006 ) Possible treatments for this kind of non hereditary Alzheimer's would be high doses of antioxidants to rebalance and fix the oxidative stress. ( Cummings, 2009 ) Things such as anti-oxidant pills containing high doses of powerful antioxidants such as grape skin extract or blueberries could be a potential way to treat non-hereditary Alzheimer's ( Korschun, 2006 ) Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers levels of the amyloid-beta peptides that cause the plaques in the brain leading to Alzheimer's disease. It is thought that Resveratrol acts by stimulating the degradation of amyloid-beta peptides by the proteasome, a barrel-shaped multi-protein complex that can specifically digest proteins into short polypeptides and amino acids. The deposition of amyloid-beta peptides in the brain is one of the characteristic features of Alzheimer's disease. ( Patton, 2005 ) Studies done by Marambaud (2008) indicate that moderate consumption of wine is associated with a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Wine has antioxidant compounds with potential to be a neuroprotective. Marambaud ( 2008 ) also found that Resveratrol as found in gapes, helps to prevent oxidative stress and therefore prevent the development and appearance of symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease Another study done by Srinivasan ( 2006 ) found that melatonin may have possibilities for preventing the progression of Alzheimers. As people age, the rate of production of melatonin declines, and this may contribute to Increased levels of oxidative stress in older people. Melatonin regulates the anti oxidants and pro oxidants, and is able to increase the survival of neurons under enhanced oxidative stress, so the decrease in melatonin levels could lead to neuron death if oxidative stress is present. Oxidative stress is being looked into as a possible cause of the symptoms of Alzheimer's. It has been shown that when melatonin was given to elderly Alzheimer's disease patients there was improved cognitive function. These findings suggest that Melatonin may have potential as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease patients, due to its ability to keep neurons alive even when oxidative stress is present ad its regulation of anti oxidants and pro oxidants. ( Srinivasan, 2006 ) These different scientists ( Srinivasan, 2006 ) , and ( Marambaud, 2008 ) have looked into two possible ways for preventing the progression of Alzheimer's Disease. one possible way to slow or prevent the progression of the disease could be by treating a patient with anti-oxidants and resveratrol to correct the oxidative stress ( Marambaud, 2008 ) , and another possible way of treating an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's disease would be to replace the melatonin in their bodies and therefore give the neurons the ability to survive under increased oxidative stress ( Srinivasan, 2006 ) . A possible experiment would be to see which of these methods works the best. This could be studied in the classroom by treating some flies with just anti oxidants, some flies with Resveratrol, and some flies with Melatonin to compare the results of how long the flies in the different treatments lived, and to compare the cognitive ability and progression of Alzheimer's disease among the flies of the different treatment methods. The purpose of a study like this would be to see if resveratrol or high doses of anti oxidants or melatonin really do slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease, and if resveratrol, anti oxidants, or melatonin do slow the appearance of the symptoms or the progression of Alzheimer's disease then the purpose would be to see which one ( anti oxidants, resveratrol, or melatonin ) works the most effectively to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Bibliography: Bahr, Marthias; Neuro-protection, Alzheimer's Disease; Neuro-protection; 2004; page 34 Behkne, John A; Human aging; The biology of aging; published 1978, pages 182- 185 Conn, Michael; Drosophila models of aging; Handbook of Models for Human Aging; published 2006; pages 253-255 Crowther, Damien; Alzheimer's, Working with Drosophila; www.research-horizons.com; issue 1; October, 2006 Korschun, Holly; Scientists Discover Possible Link Between Oxidative Stress and Non-hereditary Degenerative Disease; http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/42423.php; May 2, 2006 Marambaud, Philippe; Resveratrol Promotes Clearance of Alzheimer's Disease Amyloid-Peptides; The Journal of Biochemistry; Vol 10; November 11, 2005; Pages 316-326 Patton, Dominique; Resveratrol Tackles Alzheimer's Plaques; http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Resveratrol-tackles-Alzhei mer-s-plaques-shows-lab-study; November 4, 2005 Shenk, D; Alzheimers disease; The Columbia Encyclopedia; Vol 6; 2008 Srinivasan, V; Melatonin in Alzheimer's Disease and other Neurodegenerative Disorders; Behavior Brain Functions; Volume 2; May 4, 2006; 2-15 Wayne, Melissa and Segal, Jeanne; Alzheimer's Disease Symmptoms and Stages; www.helpguide.org; 2009.