Researchers at Duke have made breakthrough on Alzheimer's treatment

[Robert Miles]

Researchers at Duke have made breakthrough on Alzheimer's treatment
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/16/1378226/-Researchers-at-Duke-have-made-breakthrough-on-Alzheimer-s-treatment?detail=email

A treatment that works in mice. Now they need to check if the mouse
model of Alzheimer's is enough like human Alzheimer's for it to work
for humans also.

Apparently, immune cells in the brain use up so much of a nutrients
called arginine that there is not enough left for the brain to continue
functioning correctly in those who have Alzheimer's. They have found
a drug candidate that make the immune cells use less arginine.

[Mark Thorson]

Post by Robert Miles
A treatment that works in mice. Now they need to check if the mouse
model of Alzheimer's is enough like human Alzheimer's for it to work
for humans also.

These aren't just any mice. They are a strain
only used by this group at Duke which has two
mutations to the amyloid precursor protein (APP)
and knock-out of the inducible nitric oxide
synthase (iNOS) enzyme. This strain is claimed
to reproduce the main features of Alzheimer's
Disease.

This is not really a mouse model of AD. It's
a mouse model of a particular hypothesis of AD
etiology -- the notion that AD is at its core
an immune system dysfunction. (iNOS is expressed
in white blood cells and seems to play an important
role in immune system function.) Maybe that's
true, but we're a long way from establishing that.

Post by Robert Miles
Apparently, immune cells in the brain use up so much of a nutrients
called arginine that there is not enough left for the brain to continue
functioning correctly in those who have Alzheimer's. They have found
a drug candidate that make the immune cells use less arginine.

If it were that simple -- arginine deficiency --
you could just eat arginine and it would be
taken up by the brain from the bloodstream.
The blood-brain barrier blocks a lot of molecules
from entering the brain, but arginine is an
essential amino acid. I'm very skeptical that
the BBB would block absorption of arginine if
there was a deficiency in the brain.

[Mark Thorson]

Post by Mark Thorson
This is not really a mouse model of AD. It's
a mouse model of a particular hypothesis of AD
etiology -- the notion that AD is at its core
an immune system dysfunction. (iNOS is expressed
in white blood cells and seems to play an important
role in immune system function.) Maybe that's
true, but we're a long way from establishing that.

Although white blood cells do express iNOS,
so do some glial cells when activated by
inflammation. There's a number of studies
using selective iNOS inhibitors in mouse
models of AD based on the idea that NO
production from glial inflammation is the
cause of neuron death in AD.

[Mark Thorson]

Post by Mark Thorson
This is not really a mouse model of AD. It's
a mouse model of a particular hypothesis of AD
etiology -- the notion that AD is at its core
an immune system dysfunction. (iNOS is expressed
in white blood cells and seems to play an important
role in immune system function.) Maybe that's
true, but we're a long way from establishing that.

Although white blood cells do express iNOS,
so do some glial cells when activated by
inflammation. There's a number of studies
using selective iNOS inhibitors in mouse
models of AD based on the idea that glial
inflammation is the cause of neuron death
in AD.